It has become clear to even the least astute observer that the United States is in decline and has been so for some time now. Despite the hollow promises of the government’s talking heads, however, worse is yet to come. What is to become of the United States of America? Will the beacon of liberty, already dangerously dim, be finally extinguished?
I hate to say I told you so, but, well, I told you so. This will be the fifth Independence Day article I have written, and reading over the last four today, I am dismayed at exactly how much of what I predicted would go wrong with America has actually come to pass, and how much more horror looms just ahead. But I am also reminded that hope still remains, not just for liberty, but for human civilization.
In 2005, when things did not look nearly so bleak as they do today, I contented myself with a quick retelling of the events leading to American independence for Britain and a reminder that all Americans have a role to play in protecting liberty, not just people who wear a military uniform. (As you will see, my views have evolved somewhat since then.)
In 2006 I noted that the greatest threats to the liberty we enjoy were not in far-off places in the Middle East, but right here at home. Those threats emanate from both the “left” and the “right” and over the years I have been quick to criticize both. By that time I had seen enough and knew that something greater had to be done if we were to have any freedom left. Thus I joined the Free State Project, which is another story altogether.
At the time, speaking of George W. Bush’s expansive and arguably unconstitutional view of federal government power, I wrote, “Now all that power is going to wind up in the hands of a socialist Democrat sooner or later, and then, conservatives, you’ll be sorry!” It was sooner, and conservatives certainly are sorry now. Then again, over the eight year Bush regime, one could almost see him move farther to the left each day until, when he left office, he was only slightly to the right of his successor.
In 2007, and before the subprime mortgage crisis came seemingly out of nowhere to herald the economic collapse which is now only beginning, I warned that it would happen, I stated why it would happen and noted its root causes, which go back nearly a century, and suggested America’s last political chance to avert disaster lay with Ron Paul. Unfortunately, Paul was not given nearly the press time during his presidential campaign as he was afterward, when the press finally realized he had been right all along. Now, hardly a day goes by when Ron Paul does not appear on TV speaking about the economic crisis.
At that time I had just moved to New Hampshire and was doing what I could to promote Ron Paul and his ideas, despite him being (like all humans) an imperfect candidate, and even despite my growing suspicion that liberty might not be regained through existing political processes. I had created an informal weekly meeting of liberty lovers here which, for a few months, was the unofficial center of the Ron Paul campaign in New Hampshire, and after visits from Paul himself, made national news. I have never spoken to as many reporters in so short a time span before or since. That informal weekly meeting continues to this day.
By this time last year, my views of what was possible through the political process, and even whether it should be employed at all, had advanced significantly. I wrote last year from a former station of the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, and events like the Civil War, Reconstruction, and even the nature of government weighed heavily on my mind last summer as I hiked across mountains and battlefields. I have ultimately come to the conclusion that governments as we have known them cannot protect our essential liberties and must ultimately reduce us all to bondage, and further, that this has already happened. It was clear to me then, and is now, that if human beings are to be civilized and live with each other in peace, then some other means of ordering society must be found.
Surprisingly, this idea is not new. In 1680, Algernon Sidney wrote, inDiscourses on Government: “As liberty consists only in being subject to no man’s will, and nothing denotes a slave but dependence on the will of another; if there be no other law in a kingdom than the will of a prince, there is no such thing as liberty.” Today we depend on the will of countless others, who call themselves government, and unlike monarchies of old, are largely unknown to us and, despite their protests to the contrary, unaccountable to us.
Moreover, with the subprime mortgage crisis, bailouts, and stimulus packages, it was clear that the economic collapse which is to come would arrive much sooner than even I had anticipated. As 2008 drew to a close and Barack Obama was elected, the bailouts had already begun; as we know, Obama has not only continued them but expanded them greatly, with all the waste, fraud and abuse that follows any government program. Indeed, the government has even purchased majority stakes in companies it calls “too big to fail,” when in reality, those companies should have failed and all involved would be better off if they had.
As long time readers know, the ultimate problem with the economy is that it has too much government control; and the government blames its failures to control the economy on the market. Most of us learned that economies cannot be controlled by governments — and should not be — by the lesson of the Soviet Union; it seems those in power not only have not learned that lesson, but want the rest of us to forget it as well.
Over the last year the Federal Reserve has put trillions of new dollars into the economy which did not exist before; we call this inflation. Or we would if those dollars were to actually enter circulation; most of them are being held in reserve by their recipient banks, insurance companies, other bailout recipients and governments. Eventually, though, those dollars will be loaned out or spent; and when they are, then the rise in prices which follows inflation will hit, and hit hard. Are you ready to pay a billion dollars for a loaf of bread? We aren’t quite there yet, but this is where we are heading with reckless abandon.
If inflation weren’t bad enough, the present federal government proposes harsh new taxes on virtually everyone through a dizzying array of new and expanded programs to help pay for it all.
Further, the federal government currently proposes a virtual takeover of health care. Today it’s by a “public option” insurance program which, it has been shown repeatedly, will crowd out private insurance programs, drive up health care costs, and make necessary and lifesaving health care harder to get overall. Put another way, people will suffer and die who could have been saved, and the more government controls or influences health care, the more people will suffer and die. This is how health care works in Canada, Britain, France, Cuba, and everywhere else government control of health care has been implemented. Even here in this country, such as in Massachusetts, where health care is more tightly controlled than anywhere else, health care is becoming harder and harder to obtain at any price.
And all the while, people are losing their jobs by the hundreds of thousands a month, and state governments are going broke. Property tax revenues are dropping like a stone bringing the cash crunch to local governments. Government provided “services” on which people have come to depend, as past government interventions have all but eliminated their superior private counterparts, are now threatened, and if the welfare checks stop going out, riots will be next.
Four years ago, I asked, “America has had thousands of Tea Acts since, but where were the tea parties?” Today, at least, there are assemblies which call themselves tea parties. One was probably held in a city near you today. These well intentioned people generally want to do something like “restore the republic.” While I concede this would be a great improvement over our current state of affairs, I will note again that the United States went off the rails before the ink was dry on the Constitution, and even if we somehow “restore” it, it will go off the rails again. Some new way to order society must be found.
Some early work toward this end is being done right down the road in Keene, New Hampshire, by a few dozen liberty activists who moved here because of the Free State Project. Engaging in blatant acts of freedom of the press and other bits of civil disobedience, they have illustrated that the movement for liberty ultimately comes down to ideas. What ideas shall prevail? Today the dominant idea is that each person should be his brother’s keeper, and should be forced to do so at gunpoint. As I said last year, this is no way to order a society. Beyond the inherent wrongness of it, its end result is the economic collapse we are just beginning to see.
Whether the government will collapse entirely, or the country devolve into civil unrest, I cannot predict. But it seems certain that one or the other will happen, absent a reordering of society along the principles of voluntary interaction and nonaggression.
Many people who have heard the idea of living in a society without a coercive government to order their lives for them have asked what such a society might look like and how, or even if, they might be secure from crime or fraud without such a coercive government. Others have quite rightly asked if human beings can even possibly form such a society, given the nature of some people to gravitate toward fraud or violence, and what would become of such people and their victims.
These questions require some exploration, and far more than I can do in a single article here. I have been considering writing a book for some time, and in the last few weeks I have decided to do just that, to explore these issues in the depth they deserve. I admit I do not have all the answers, and in the course of writing such a book I might not find them. At the least, I hope to ask the right questions. I expect this project to take somewhere between two and five years, as it will require extensive research into areas I don’t normally investigate, such as human psychology and sociology. But if we are to finally move forward from a society based on force to one based on voluntary interaction, and to finally have the freedom which is our birthright, we must have some idea of how to get from here to there. It is this idea I intend to develop. As the project progresses I will post updates, and will likely start a new web site for it.
As I noted earlier, “restoring the republic” is fraught with danger, as the time for old ideas lies in the past, and the old ideas were far from perfect anyway. Rather than pin human civilization at one point in history, where it should be forever stuck, we must continue to evolve. Part of that evolution is to build on old ideas, taking what is good and useful from them and developing new, better ideas. This is, after all, how those old ideas arose, and the process must continue. I hope you’ll join me as I embark on this exploration. And I hope, for the sake of all of humanity, that it is not too late.
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KBCraig
Jul 05, 2009
Welcome back to the posting world. Where the heck ya been?
MediaMentions
Jul 05, 2009
And here’s what Independence Day should be about: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=6WK4J6JK7ZH2&preview=magnifier&linkid=0fda77f5-3afe-4ebd-a93c-5d62b494cbc4&pdaffid=ZVFwBG5jk4Kvl9OaBJc5%2bg%3d%3d
Best regards,
MediaMentions
Highlander
Jul 05, 2009
The comment was:
—————
As I noted earlier, “restoring the republic” is fraught with danger, as the time for old ideas lies in the past, and the old ideas were far from perfect anyway. Rather than pin human civilization at one point in history, where it should be forever stuck, we must continue to evolve.
—————
“(T)he time for old ideas lies in the past, …”
.
You’ll please pardon me, but it seems as though you’ve been through one or another government re-education program.
.
You disappeared for a long time, then came back to make some questionable remarks, left a bit and now return with the above entirely treasonous utterances.
.
How was your visit the boy in the White House?
.
And the bankers: How was you visit with the bankers?
.
You’ll be getting back on that, won’t you?
.
NH
Jul 05, 2009
Well said as usual Mike. Frankly, I pray for a military coup, but I know it would never happen.
I don’t know how else we can take back this country.
Cecil Williams
Jul 05, 2009
I hear all of this talk about how we won our independence from England to the good of all Americans. Think about this. The American Revolution, like most wars, was fought, not for the any great ideal (ie: freedom), rather it’s roots were economic. The wealthy plantation and business owners wanted to keep more of what they made rather than give it to Britian in the form of taxes. They used rhetoric and idealism to incite the poor to fight the war for them. They won their freedom to keep more of what they made but the average person traded the British yoke for an American one. Here the aristocracy is not derived from birth rather from wealth. The average American became free to work for the wealthy Americans who benefitted so much for the war fought primarily by the poor. If our revolution became the beacon of freedom around the world, why did not our founding fathers include women and slaves in “we the people”. “All men are created equal, except if you happen to be female or black”. The common man has benefitted little from our revolution. It took women over a hundred years to get their right to vote. It took blacks longer than that to be given their rights as Americans. If we’d have remained with Britian, slaves would have been freed 50 years before they were here! It took workers until the 1930’s to get work places and wages that were just. Even then the Federal Government did support we the people, rather they backed American aristocracy and sent troops to put down labor organizing efforts. That doesn’t sound like being free to me. We the people have never had control of this country, unless of course you only count the wealthy as the people. No the common person has had to fight for every advantage they have today. They have had to fight the american aristocracy which has always been supported by the government to get such luxuries as an 8 hour work day, no child labor, safer working conditions, a decent wage, employer paid health care, vacations, etc. They not only fought for them, some were killed trying to get the worker rights we have today. I think many who do not remember the beginnings of the labor movement, the fight for worker rights, take those rights for granted. I doubt that I will live to see the day where common folk like you or me have a meaningful say in the running of the land of the “free”.
Manumit
Jul 05, 2009
It’s In-Dependence Day
The motto: “Everyday from cradle to grave, you are ours In Dependence!”
Bestfireworks???
Jul 06, 2009
Redding and Anderson, California. Come next year 2010 to see the best free shows!!!! Where are yours? We all do need better wages, health care, vacations and more. My grandparents had all of that. Now we are just slaves again. Keep up the fight. We need to get back what is rightfully ours. Including the bonuses. That would stimulate the economy. Kick ass America!!!
Lark
Jul 06, 2009
Sadly, I’m afraid it’s all over but the cryin’ – I suspect Ron Paul knows it too.
And tonight I was introduced to this Canadian researcher who puts the NAU “countdown” date as… 1 January, 2010… on her “Statement of Purpose” page.
http://habeascorpuscanada.webng.com/statementpurpose.html
Habeas Corpus Canada: Statement of Purpose (Kathleen Moore)
* * * * * * * * * * *
From http://www.habeascorpuscanada.webng.com/support.html
• THE NORTH AMERICAN ‘SOVIET’ UNION, February 27, 2007, http://www.NewsWithViews.com – February 27, 2007
The regionalization (consolidation) of the world is quite similar to the three-stage plan outlined by Stalin at the 1936 Communist International. At that meeting, the official program proclaimed:
“Dictatorship can be established only by a victory of socialism in different countries or groups of countries, after which there would be federal unions of the various groupings of these socialist countries, and the third stage would be an amalgamation of these regional federal unions into a world union of socialist nations.” (Ed note: The third stage is taking place right now as we in the United States of America become part of a federal union, the North American Union, which will in the near future become part of a world union of socialist nations.)
• WALKS LIKE A DUCK; TALKS LIKE A DUCK…, http://www.NewsWithViews.com – January 13, 2004
“What we are looking at today in the United States of America is a “communist”, not “fascist” takeover of the United States.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
“We live in a make-believe world created by others. We are given our “truths”, our history, our “science”, our “religions”. We are given our entertainment and we are given “enemies” to hate. We are given this via the media, advertising and education. — John Crittenden
The two biggest enemies of any free peoples are their government and organized religion. Governments are criminal organizations with all the talents of organized crime. They have guns, same as the mob, and they make rules. If you don’t obey their rules they will come and take you away. If you refuse they will lock you up or kill you.
All religions are evil and false. Religion has nothing to do with God. Religion is a lie. Organized religion was created by men to control other men and does so to this day. Both government and religion were created by the same people who now want to take over the world. — John Crittenden
* * * * * * * * * * *
http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/contplay/index.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.greghallett.com%2Fbooks.html (Expand playlist)
Greg Hallett Radio Interview Playlist / Episode 14 HTTOTW: Cloak – 5 Feb 07
“9/11 was constitutional.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
http://sovereignsentience.blogspot.com/2008/10/wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-fabian-society.html
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
* * * * * * * * * * *
http://www.nord.twu.net/acl
Anti Communitarian League
* * * * * * * * * * *
http://www.nikirapaana.blogspot.com
Living Outside the Dialectic (Niki Raapana)
* * * * * * * * * * *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPW5rC-chDU
Communitarianism
* * * * * * * * * * *
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/transformation/transformation.htm
Trance-Formation of America
Michael Sutcliffe
Jul 06, 2009
Cecil,
The American Revolution, like most wars, was fought, not for the any great ideal (ie: freedom), rather it’s roots were economic. The wealthy plantation and business owners wanted to keep more of what they made rather than give it to Britian in the form of taxes. They used rhetoric and idealism to incite the poor to fight the war for them.
I wouldn’t call the Declaration of Independence ‘rhetoric’. That document clearly details the burdens the people had to endure:
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
While some of the language in the Declaration might be ‘flowery’, accusations like those above are very specific and hardly simple ‘rhetoric’.
They won their freedom to keep more of what they made but the average person traded the British yoke for an American one.
Consider the UK today, which has lost its tradition of freedom. The middle class in the UK are leaving in droves. The vast majority of people migrating to the UK are from poorer countries eg. India, African countries, eastern Europe. Where are the middle class leaving to? To places like the USA, Australia and Canada. Places where the tradition of freedom has not been lost. The UK is in dire financial straits. The USA still has an economy that can pull itself out of the current situation – if it makes the right decisions – the UK doesn’t have this luxury.
The average American became free to work for the wealthy Americans who benefitted so much for the war fought primarily by the poor.
The average American was also enjoying the highest standard of living of average people throughout the world.
If our revolution became the beacon of freedom around the world, why did not our founding fathers include women and slaves in “we the people”. “All men are created equal, except if you happen to be female or black”. The common man has benefitted little from our revolution. It took women over a hundred years to get their right to vote. It took blacks longer than that to be given their rights as Americans. If we’d have remained with Britian, slaves would have been freed 50 years before they were here! It took workers until the 1930’s to get work places and wages that were just.
Perhaps you should consider the context of this statement. Australian aboriginals (natives) weren’t universally given the right to vote until 1965, and only received their first partial voting rights in 1949. Women in Switzerland were only given the right to vote in 1971. The USA might have had a tumultuous history, but it hasn’t done to badly in affording true equality before the law in the context of the rest of the world.
Furthermore, your statement that Britian ended the slave trade 50 years before the USA is dubious. Britian did enact laws in the early 1800s banning slavery, but it still continued in British colonies, and the USA also passed laws in the early 1800s banning the importation of slaves.
We the people have never had control of this country, unless of course you only count the wealthy as the people. No the common person has had to fight for every advantage they have today. They have had to fight the american aristocracy which has always been supported by the government to get such luxuries as an 8 hour work day, no child labor, safer working conditions, a decent wage, employer paid health care, vacations, etc. They not only fought for them, some were killed trying to get the worker rights we have today. I think many who do not remember the beginnings of the labor movement, the fight for worker rights, take those rights for granted. I doubt that I will live to see the day where common folk like you or me have a meaningful say in the running of the land of the “free”.
Most of these things changes were occurring around the other parts of the Western world roughly the same time as they did in the USA. It is not factual to claim that workers were exploited here while in other parts of the world the labour movement had delivered them a ‘workers utopia’, especially when you consider the standard of living of the American worker compared to other parts of the world.
If you love socialism that much and think it’s going to save you then lets have some action rather than words. Move to a socialist country like France, Sweden, the UK, Venezuela or Cuba. See if your standard of living actually goes up and whether poor people really do enjoy such a better deal. Let me tell you, they don’t. Personally, I’m looking to head to the USA because I like my freedom, and I know that if I’m willing to work I can build a good life.
Gorbash91
Jul 06, 2009
I hope you expand and update the book “The Market for Liberty”. This book is available free in both PDF and audiobook form at www.FreeKeene.com.
Michael Hampton
Jul 06, 2009
Some comments:
Highlander, I have no idea what you’re going on about. You seem quite confused. Perhaps you would care to explain what specifically is bothering you?
As for the Revolution, it’s quite true that there is an economic component to it. But it did not exclusively impact the aristocracy, from which came most of the leadership of that revolution and of the early years of the United States. It impacted virtually everyone. The economic policies Britain had imposed had caused a severe recession and seemed, to the people of the day, to be an attempt to starve them into submission.
It’s also true that the ideas of the day provided almost nothing for women and slaves. We condemn this today, and rightly so; yet at that time either was unthinkable. Remember what I said about old ideas? There is some good in them, and we should take what is good and leave the rest in the pages of history.
The same is true of today’s ideas; there is good to be found in them which should be carried forward, and the bad should be left to wither away. Of course, few at the time of the revolution would have considered women’s suffrage to be a good idea, and similarly with some ideas that I have advanced here. Perhaps this is why Highlander finds some of my ideas “treasonous.” History will judge, I suppose.
Finally, a reading list is a very good idea. The Market for Liberty is a good one, and you can get that for free. Healing Our World is another must-read, and probably the book I would suggest everyone read first.
Mike
Jul 12, 2009
How is wanting to keep more of your property (i.e., all of it, not have it stolen from you) not a great ideal?
New America
Sep 03, 2009
The New American Revolution
America does not need CHANGE. It needs a REVOLUTION.
Revolution: A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. Aristotle described two types of political revolution:
1. Complete change from one constitution to another.
2. Modification of an existing constitution.
Thomas Jefferson said periodic revolution was necessary to remove the excesses, corruption, and violation of rights that tend to show up in government.
Restore and reinforce the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Declare a new Declaration of Independence from the international bank cartels who have run the whole show from behind the scenes with their ‘actors’ to take the heat. Dissolve the Unconsitutional Federal Reserve of which is a private consortium or cartel of international bankers out to control your lives more than the populace at large knows.