A Letter Concerning Liberty
Lately I’ve become a bit suspicious about why the men we admiringly refer to as our founding fathers would risk their lives, wealth, and reputation to defend something they called Liberty. Liberty is a term that has become muddled and over-used to the detriment of its true meaning. Could it have been that they realized the one indisputable characteristics that we all share, binds us with a common thread, and in the same moment defines us as individuals is our God-given natural Liberty?
Let’s consider Thomas Jefferson’s word that “When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear the government, you have tyranny.”
More to follow..
My Great Personal Awakening of 2007 - Inspired By Ron Paul
Philosophical Orbit - A New Revolution
I have a pile of books sitting in front of me as I write this. For better or worse, they’re books that are never far away… The Bible, the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Paine, Thoreau, Emerson, Aristotle, Dewey, Locke, and the list goes on. These are books that I’ve learned from and continue to look to for inspiration and guidance in my daily life. Today I added Ron Paul’s A Foreign Policy of Freedom. To me, these books are not just words, but rather documented experiences and thoughts of great men and women from the past. Be careful, an admonition to myself, it’s a habit of humankind, to merely orbit around the philosophy and experiences of authors and live vicariously through their accomplishments and historical events instead of writing history and being a part of it. It’s time to graduate from the ranks of the muser, split off from the current flight path and learn what it is to apply my principles. I will have no part of this philosophical orbit. I have joined the Ron Paul Revolution and will wage proverbial war on the old media’s desire to stifle my personal liberty, free speech, and Ron Paul particularly. In the same way that faith without works is dead, knowledge without application is useless. God did not simply give his creation faith as a tool, but additionally a sound mind as well.. We should feel free to use it.
Habitual Subordination
Similar to the habit of what I just referred to as philosophical orbit we as mankind have what I consider to be a condition of habitual subordination. Take for example Thomas Jefferson describing his time in the legislature prior to the American Revolution of 1776 when he wrote: “Our minds were circumscribed within narrow limits by an habitual belief that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country in all matters of government, to direct all our labors in subservience to her interests…” When we accept ideas and policies without first careful inspection or against our better judgement we deprive ourselves of using the key differentiator between us and the animals; the ability of mind and reflective thought. Habitual subordination is a condition and routine occurrence.
Habitual subordination is a term that I use to describe my letting individuals and organizations convince me of their ideas without first the practice of critical thinking. For example: Don’t let anyone convince you that Ron Paul is unelectable. Our duty is not to serve the desire of government and the old media, but rather to be a part of a free society and “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in it’s best state is but a necessary evil; in it’s worst state an intolerable one…”
Habitual subordination is the solution to the difficulty of thinking for ourselves. When humans are presented with problems or confronted with difficulty Dewey suggests “the next step is suggestion of some way out - the formation of some tentative plan or project, the entertaining of some prior theory” and “If the suggestion that occurs is at once accepted, we have uncritical thinking, the minimum of reflection.” We continue to habitually subordinate our solutions to lives problems by applying what has been suggested to us in an attempt for the quick and easy way out, or what has been suggested to us as right or the only way.
Don’t let the old media suggest to you that Hillary, Obama, Gulianni, and Romney are the only ‘electable’ candidates because they’re the only ones being covered in the news. Don’t continue to vote for the “Lesser of two Evils”..
John Dewey teaches us to use our minds for reflective thinking and remain in a state of suspended conclusion, Aristotle teaches us to observe the world around us carefully, Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, Paine and Thoreau tell us “That government is best which governs least”, Jefferson tells us to protect the state by educating ourselves. Let’s use our minds to think about what our senses perceive, educate and love our neighbors, hold our judgment until we have all the facts. Let’s hear the words of Thoreau and Paine and work to make sure the government does not continue to grow and absorb our personal liberty.
I’ve never been an activist on any level in my life, but rather quite the contrary. This time around I’m angry. What the government expects us to tolerate is simply unreasonable. Wake up people and realize that when government is this big we need someone like Ron Paul to help us cut it back. Politicians will lose their jobs, but that’s ok. I’ll give them a few jobs to do around my farm.
