(An Essay Inspired by Gill Saunders)

Have you ever noticed how time sometimes seems to drag by at a snails pace, then before you know it, ten, even twenty, years have passed? So it is with my first glimpse into the realm of the dark side, as I’ve taken to calling it; my first introduction into the world of conspiracy theories. It sometimes seems as if it was just a short while ago that I first watched Aaron Russo’s documentary, From Freedom To Fascism. I still pull that dvd of that film out from time to time to watch it; if, for no other purpose, than to see just how far down the rabbit hole I’ve traveled.

I don’t want to go too deeply into what Russo talks about in the film, but I would like to comment on how I used to try to engage in conversations with people concerning some of the things he talks about; which was when I first began hearing the term ‘conspiracy theorist’ leveled at me. One of the things that caused people to use that term to describe me was my insistence that the goods we purchased contained RFID tags in them that allowed those items to be scanned and tracked. Yet now Sam’s Club has RFID scanners at the exit door that allows the store to see exactly what is in your cart as you leave the store.

Sadly, I don’t hear any apologies coming from those who labeled me a conspiracy theorist because I suggested that the technology to do exactly that was being developed and put into use. However, it is not RFID tagging, or any of the other things Russo discusses, that I came here to talk about today; it is the general premise implied by the title of his film; how we have gone from one extreme to another; from freedom to fascism. It is along that line of thinking that I would like (hope) people to read the remainder of this essay.

Putting aside our genders, our political ideologies, and even our ethnicity, mankind can be broken down into two categories. There are those who yearn to be free, and there are those who desire (require) that they be governed. Man’s natural state, as I’ll go into in greater detail momentarily, is to be free; it is un-natural for people to give other people the power to tell them what they can and cannot do. Yet there are many, an overwhelming majority actually, who are perfectly content to live out their lives being governed; told what they can and cannot do. This, in large part, is due to the fact that they have lived their entire lives being told that government is necessary; that without government chaos would ensue. Yet despite what you have been led to believe, freedom is mankind’s natural state.

I do not wish to turn this into a theological discussion, but if you are a Christian, which 66% of the people of this country claims to be, then you are probably familiar with the biblical narrative of how the earth, and man, were created. Do you recall reading anything about how God also created government; I sure don’t. God was, not only, the only legislator; He was also judge, jury, and sometimes, executioner; making earthly systems of government un-natural.

The point I’m trying to make is that government is a creation of man; that man’s natural state is to not have any earthly institutions telling him what he can and cannot do; proving my point that our natural state is freedom. Yet as James Madison said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” (Federalist 51) Therefore, by implication, we see that the purpose of government ought to be to pass laws that ensure that mankind adheres to the same laws that govern the angels in heaven above us; nothing more, nothing less. As we are about to see, government has failed to serve that function; which is the inevitable outcome when a system created by man, and based upon man’s will alone, is established to govern over humanity.

However, before I go any further, there is a short story, an analogy really, that I would like to share with you. Now I do not know how true this story is, but it serves my purpose nonetheless. The story goes as follows:

A chemistry professor at a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government.

 Before I get into describing how a prison, similar in nature to the one described in that story, is being constructed to enslave us, there are 4 quotes from Etienne de la Boetie’s, The Politics of Obedience – The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, that I would like for you to read, and keep in mind, as we move forward. The passages are as follows:

– A people enslaves itself, cuts its own throat, when, having a choice between being vassals and being free men, it deserts its liberties and takes on the yoke, gives consent to its own misery, or, rather, apparently welcomes it.

– It is incredible how as soon as a people becomes subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and so willingly that one is led to say, on beholding such a situation, that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement.
-One never pines for what he has never known; longing comes only after enjoyment and constitutes, amidst the experience of sorrow, the memory of past joy. It is truly the nature of man to be free and to wish to be so, yet his character is such that he instinctively follows the tendencies that his training gives him.

– There are always a few, better endowed than others, who feel the weight of the yoke and cannot restrain themselves from attempting to shake it off: these are the men who never become tamed under subjection and who always — like Ulysses on land and sea, constantly seeking the smoke of his chimney — cannot prevent themselves from peering about for their natural privileges and from remembering their ancestors and their former ways.

Each of those passages, in one way or another, touches upon the basic premise of this essay; how a once free people can, so easily, and willingly, become enslaved. Since its inception in 1787, our government has been working to build a multi-sided cage to imprison us; one that we cannot see or touch; yet it exists nonetheless. The purpose of the remainder of this essay is to point out the various stages of construction, and to show you what I believe will be the finishing touches; the gate that locks us into this prison.

Whenever a building is erected, what is the first thing that happens? The first thing that happens is that the groundwork is laid, and a foundation is poured. So it is with the prison that is being built around us. The groundwork for this prison was to institute a system of government that gave men the power, and authority, to pass laws, and enact programs, that would form the walls of this prison. That is why, rather than simply amending the Articles of Confederation, the framers scrapped them; substituting them with the system outlined by the Constitution. That was the groundwork.

You might say I’m out of my mind; that the framers were good men; that they had our best interests in mind when they drafted the Constitution. I believe that, had people been taught the truth about what they did, they would believe differently. Many of the Founders and Framers (and they are two distinctly different groups of men) were not at all opposed to monarchies; they just did not like being governed by a foreign monarch.

For instance, on June 18, 1787, Alexander Hamilton laid out his suggestion as to what form, and structure, the system of government they were developing should take; a system that so closely mirrored a monarchy that he probably would have been tarred and feathered had the people (in general) learned he had proposed. That may be why the framers were made to take an oath to keep the proceedings of the convention secret until the last of them had passed away; to avoid the wrath of the public they had betrayed.

Although Hamilton’s proposal was not given much debate, he never abandoned his belief that what he had proposed was what was best for this country; or at least, for a certain segment of this country; what we might call today, the One Percent. It was for this One Percent that the Constitution was drafted; which may explain why certain men, men who saw what was going on, left the convention in disgust; or refused to put their names to the document it had produced.

One of Mr. Hamilton’s cohorts was a man by the name of Gouverneur Morris; who it is said, is the true author of the Constitution; for he alone is credited with taking what was agreed to in the convention and putting it into the finalized document we now have.

Although I despise the Constitution, and the men who produced it, I have to give credit where credit is due; the document is a work of literary, or should I say, legal brilliance.

On the surface, or upon a cursory examination, the Constitution appears to outline a limited form of government; with the states and the people having equal say in what would become law. However, if one were to read, and think about, the wording, clause by clause, they would see that it does not outline a limited form of government; quite the contrary.

The wording is such that government can do just about any damned thing it wants, and there isn’t a bloody thing We the people can do about it! If you do not believe that, please provide me with one instance where anyone from government has ever been sent to prison, or executed, for their crimes against the people they were elected to represent. That’s all I’m going to say about that; lest I end up writing a book and not an essay.

Now that the groundwork had been laid, it was time for the powers that be to pour the foundation. This foundation rested upon 4 points, 4 corners if you will:

1) The creation of debt;

2) The ability to levy taxes to pay off that debt;

3) The establishment of a central bank to loan government money; and

4) The ability to use force to compel obedience.

All 4 of those things were accomplished during the two terms of George Washington; under the guidance and direction of none other than Alexander Hamilton. The first two clauses of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives government the authority to carry out the first two points; the creation of debt and the levying of taxes. Yet Hamilton was not satisfied with that, he wanted the federal government to start off in debt; something he accomplished when he convinced the people that the government ought to assume the debts the states had incurred during the Revolution. I won’t go into any great detail on this, but there are two points that you need to be made aware of.

The first point is that there was enough opposition to this proposal that some kind of compromise had to be made. That is why the seat of our government now rests in Washington D.C., for it was agreed to move it out of the north to a more southern location if opposition to the assumption of the state debts was removed. The second point is that it is said that Thomas Jefferson’s biggest regret was agreeing to the Assumption Act; in return for moving the seat of power to a more southerly location.

The third corner of this foundation was the establishment of a central bank; which, over the course of our history has been a source of contention for some. Madison flip flopped on the issue; at first opposing it, then reestablishing the charter for it during his presidency. Andrew Jackson is famous for his battle to revoke its charter. It wasn’t until the 1900’s that it finally became a firmly entrenched institution in America; with the Passage of the Federal Reserve Act.

Then of course, there was the final corner, or pillar, of the foundation; the ability to use force to compel obedience to government. This power was first used in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion; when, for the first and only time, a sitting president led armed forces against those who rebelled against federal authority. Although you may not recognize it as such, but there is another instance when force was used against those who refused to comply with federal authority. In fact, not only did they refuse to comply, they revoked their membership in the Union; severing all political bonds with an out of control government. You know this event as the Civil War.

Getting back to Alexander Hamilton for a moment, I won’t go into all of his misdeeds, but if you wish to learn more of his treachery, I suggest you read either, Hamilton’s Curse, by Thomas DiLorenzo, or How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America, by Brion McClanahan; both of which are good books that detail how Hamilton went about getting what he had originally sought when he made his proposal during the Constitutional Convention.

There are a couple of things I now wish to address. First off, a free people are not likely to give up their freedom unless one of two things happens. They must be made to give it up through force, or they must be made to believe that they are serving a higher need when they do give up a portion of their freedom. The only way people can be made to willingly surrender their freedom is through the use of fear.

The Constitution itself was written and adopted because the people were made to fear the consequences of not doing something to remedy the problems the country was facing at the time. The same tactic has been used time and time again; such as when we were convinced that we must give up a portion of our freedom in the aftermath of 9/11, or how we must obey the lockdowns to prevent the spread of Covid.

Of course, if the powers that be are patient (which they sometimes are) it can enact changes so minute that people hardly recognize that their freedom is being stripped away from them. This is made all the easier when the people have not been taught what their rights and liberty are, or to notice the signs of a tyrannical government. Remember those Boetie quotes? That’s why I included them; for they are relevant to what is happening today.

I said that sometimes these changes are so incremental that people hardly notice them. Well, sometimes these changes take place over a lengthy period of time as well. The shackling of the public with the debt created by their government is one such instance; and forms the first wall of the prison that will eventually enslave us if we do not do something to stop the construction of this prison.

People hardly give much thought to the national debt, and if they do, it is merely in passing. Right now our country owes $37.698 trillion dollars; which is $10 trillion more than the current Gross Domestic Product of the United States. Not only do those you have been electing keep adding to that debt, they are saddling you, your children, your grandchildren, and their grandchildren with it; all by design.

You may be familiar with the 14th Amendment; the amendment that gave citizenship to the freed slaves. But, are you familiar with the fact that it did more than that; it declared that YOU are obligated to pay off that dept. There is another way of saying that, one that might cause a twinge of discomfort; you, your labor, and your property, are collateral on that debt; that if the U.S. forecloses on that debt, then the debt holders will assume ownership of you, your labor, and your property.

The pertinent passage is clause 4 of the 14th Amendment, which reads as follows, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” The key word there is the word ‘public.’ It does not say the federal, or the government debt, it says the ‘public debt’ as if you borrowed that money firsthand. While you did not do that, you have been electing the people who have borrowed us into a black hole; making every man, woman, and child responsible for $107,519 of that debt. I hope you’re proud of yourselves!

There is more to that, but I am trying to stay in ‘semi’ chronological order; so bear with me if it seems I am bouncing all over the place. The construction of the next wall of your prison came with the issuance of birth certificates. I know, you not only think that a birth certificate is something relatively innocuous, it is something that is necessary if one wants to obtain a passport, or other services. That’s the genius of it; they convince you that registering yourself with the system is a good thing!

I don’t know about you, but I am wary of anything that comes from the United Nations; which is why I think you ought to know what they have to say about birth certificates. According to Articles 7 & 8 of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, we read, “The child shall be registered immediately after birth…”

Did you know, that for the longest time, the only place births were recorded were in churches, or in family bibles; and even that was optional? In 1632 Virginia’s General Assembly passed a law that made it mandatory that all ministers keep track of such things as births, christenings, marriages, and burials; but the law was so loathsome that it was never enforced. In 1639 Massachusetts passed a similar law, but it was enforced so haphazardly that records were patchy, at best.

It wasn’t until the Progressive Era, the 1890’s-1920’s, that things began to change. It was during this ear that the U.S. saw a massive influx of immigrants into the country, and keeping track of them was a monumental task; made even more difficult by the fact that there were no official birth records for them. Not much has been said about this, but in the second Godfather movie there is a scene when young Vito Corleone arrives at the Ellis Island facility and is renamed by the official simply because he could not pronounce his name. That, is a microcosm of what led to the issuance of birth certificates.

Yet, it wasn’t until World War II that the requirement that people be registered at birth became an official requirement. This is due to the fact that the defense industry had to hire record numbers of workers to keep up with the demand for planes, ships, tanks, bombs, bullets, and guns; and that they wanted to ensure that they knew who they were hiring. It is estimated that, at the time, 43 million Americans were unable to prove when, and where, they were born!

So, births began to be registered. While this may seem innocent enough; it is a starting point. Put it this way, from the moment you are born, your name is entered into the system; a file is created with your name on it; a file that will grow as you mature and find a job, get married, or commit a crime. But, as we will see later, files can be used against you to deprive you of your freedom.

The next wall of our prison came in the form of ID; or identification. ID can come in many forms, and I will try to keep it as brief as possible when I discuss the various forms it can take. One of the earliest forms of ID was the early passports. The earliest form or passports, at least as we know them, came in the form of letters written by a sovereign, identifying subjects under their jurisdiction, and granting them safe passage. An example of this is found in the 2004 remake of the story of King Arthur; where the Bishop promises to provide safe conduct letters from the Pope to the Sarmation Knights after they have accomplished one last task on behalf of the church. These type of travel documents can be traced all the way back to 450 B.C.E. in ancient Persia.

In the 1800’s people were not generally required to obtain a passport to travel abroad; they were issued more to ease passage than they were as a form of identification; or to track your movements. Attitudes towards the need for passports began to change during the First World War; with concerns over national security pushing for some form of identifying who was entering into the United States. In 1920 the League of Nations, precursor to the United Nations, advocated the concept of worldwide passport standard. Passports once again became a requirement a mere 9 days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and have pretty much remained so ever since.

Nowadays don’t even give passports much thought; except when it comes to the hassle of having to obtain, or renew one. It just goes to show you how acclimated a people can become to something that restricts their freedom; in this case, their freedom to travel from one place to another.

Enough about passports; let’s talk about your Social Security card. While passports, and other types of photo ID, serve to identify you as an individual, prove that you are who you say you are, your social security number serves to identify you through your finances. Originally, your social security number was just a means of identifying you to the staff responsible for collecting, and depositing, your social security withholding’s for when you become eligible to collect them. Now it is used to track your financial activity.

You need a Social Security Number to get a job; so the government can track your income and calculate how much of it they get to keep for themselves. You need a social security number to open a bank account; for many of the same reasons you need one to find a job. You need a social security card to obtain a passport; liking your financial activity to your photo ID when traveling abroad. Finally, your social security number identifies you to the IRS. Have you ever Googled your name to see what kind of results you get? I have, and there are hundreds of Neal Ross’s that pop up. But there is only one Neal Ross with my social security number; which is how the government identifies me from amongst all the other Neal Ross’s out there.

Finally, let’s talk about drivers licenses, and the push towards a Real ID. Your drivers license not only shows to the authorities that you are qualified to operate a motor vehicle on public streets, it also serves as an easily available means of identifying you; should you be stopped by police, or need to verify your age when purchasing alcohol or tobacco products. A Real ID, they tell you, is simply a drivers license that is more difficult to counterfeit; one that is now the only means of identification accepted in some locations; such as boarding a domestic flight, or entering a federal building.

You can call me cynical if you want, but I do not think that government would spend so much effort pushing something like the Real ID if there wasn’t more to it than that. Who knows what information is coded on that little magnetic strip on the back; or if it contains an RFID chip that can be used to track your movement as you go about your daily affairs. In any case, it is a means of identification that can, and probably is, linked to that folder created at your birth; one that can easily be accessed to determine if you are being a good little boy or girl…obedient little slave.

Now that I’ve shown you 3 of the walls of the prison that have been built to imprison you, let’s talk about the one that hasn’t been erected yet; the one from which there will be no turning back when they finally erect it; the digital currency; tied to your social credit score.

They, the powers that be, already know who you are, they know all there is to know about your financial transactions, and thanks to all the other means of surveillance they have at their disposal, they pretty much know everything you do as well. In the movie Captain America-The Winter Soldier, the story talks about how SHIELD is building 3 helicarriers that are fitted with guns linked to a computer algorithm that can take out (eliminate) anyone the algorithm determines to be a threat to the system. Well, the Digital Currency tied to a social credit score is similar; it is just not as drastic; it will simply prevent you from doing things if the system determines you’ve been a bad person.

Basically, instead of having cash money; which people have been slowly conditioned to move away from thanks to checks and debit cards, people’s transactions will all be done digitally; meaning cash will no longer be accepted as a form of payment for goods and services. You can see the move in that direction in stores like Walmart; who have taken out many of their ‘staffed’ checkout lanes; only to replace them with scan and go stations.

So, if all your money, or credits if you prefer, are stored electronically, and if they are linked to a file that tells the system everything you do, then you can see how easy it would be for them to say that you cannot buy certain things, or go to certain events, if your behavior has fallen outside the parameters of what the system says is ‘acceptable’ behavior. People have been slowly programmed for that as well; with the advent of political correctness, and with labeling certain speech as hate speech, or misleading information.

Look at what happened to those who spoke out in opposition to all the measures implemented to prevent the spread of Covid, or in opposition to the vaccine; they were identified and labeled as unreliable sources of information, and their posts were censored on social media sites like Facebook. Now we have Trump wanting to further trample upon our freedom of speech by making antisemitic comments a crime.

Can people not see where this is heading???

People say I’m crazy for believing that this lies in our future, but they said I was crazy when I first started speaking out about RFID tags in the products we buy too; yet I was vindicated in that, and will probably be vindicated in this as well. Hell, they are currently testing this system out in China right now, and people still think I am making this up!

If they implement this, which I believe they want to do, the 4th wall of your prison will have been erected, and it will be game over America. Then, all they have to do is start shrinking the size of the prison; which they intend to do by herding everyone into Smart Cities.

Of course, everything they have done, or will do, will be passed off as either being necessary, or for the general public welfare; and the indoctrinated masses will fall for it…just like they always have, and will continue to do; unless they stop trusting what they are being told and start doing some independent thinking. People need to stop worrying about which political party is in charge of the system; for regardless of which of the two parties controls the system, the system is pushing all this upon you; building the prison that will eventually enslave you.

If they get that 4th wall put up, there will be no escaping; not unless the people are willing to do something that they, have yet, been unwilling to do; get up off their asses and resist; even if it means leaving their comfort zones, or putting their lives, friendships, jobs, or standing in society.

You see, freedom is easily lost, and difficult to regain; better to not put yourselves into the position where you learn that lesson the hard way.

And that’s all I have to say for today. Have an outstanding day…

May 9, 2025

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross, Student of history, politics, patriot and staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Send all comments to: [email protected].

Life continues to expand for this prolific writer and guardian of TRUE American history.