“The state is the Supreme Court. Our decision is as follows: No more private property. No more you.”

You are nothing. The state is everything.

America spent a good part of the 20th century battling that message, and inexplicably, just as it seemed we were winning, gave up and adopted the message as its own.

A precious few of us are still fighting.

So here’s a blast from the past: “Make Mine Freedom,” a 1948 short film produced by Harding College to raise awareness of the dangers of Communism and Fascism, state control for the “good” of the people (which is bad for the people and good for the state). It features a snake oil salesman, Dr. Utopia, selling bottles of “ISM” which promises to do everything, even make “the weather perfect every day.” All it requires is that you give up “everything I have including my freedom and the freedom of my children, and my children’s children, in return for which, said ISM promises to take care of me forever.” And the Americans almost fall for it.

“It’s awesome how the character who stands up and asks questions is like the quintessential libertarian blogger of today — questioning the results of the ‘ISM’ and warning about trading freedom for security,” writes libertarian blogger Stephen VanDyke. “His monologue could probably be modified very easily to fit in today’s climate of creeping fascism.”

I disagree. The message may not be perfect now, and not even perfect then, but it’s still a valuable message.

Released to the public domain, the video is now available at the Internet Archive.