It is my firm belief that the vast majority of those living in this country today do not know, and I mean REALLY know, what it means to be free. If they do, it certainly doesn’t seem to bother most of them that they are anything but free. One of the reasons I say this is because I constantly hear people saying things like we need to pass more laws to better secure our rights and liberty. To me, that is like crawling up to your master and begging for bread crumbs. If people knew what it meant to be free, they would also realize that their freedom does not come from government; in fact, it is the enemy of those who wish to be free.
It amazes me that there are people today who believe that they are comparable to those who fought for this country’s independence; yet they sit back and support far worse infringements upon their rights and liberty than our, so-called, Founders did.
In 1774, King George III imposed a series of 4 Acts upon the Colonies. Known as the Coercive, or Intolerable Acts, they were passed to punish the Colonies, particularly the Massachusetts Bay Colony, for the Boston Tea Party. Thomas Jefferson responded to the passage of these Acts by saying, “Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (administrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.”
That quote sounds a lot like what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, about a ‘…long train of abuses and usurpations…’ The Stamp Act, which set things in motion towards the Revolution, was enacted in 1765, and 11 years later the Colonies were fighting a war against their government for their independence.
Think about that, would you; eleven years was enough to be considered a long enough train of abuses to rise up and shake off their system of government. Yet here we have people who call themselves patriots, yet their entire lives have been witness to a never-ending train of abuses and usurpations by their government; dating back to 1789 when it first went into operation.
I’m not saying that people are stupid (although there are some who certainly fall into that category) but it amazes me how intellectually blind people can be; refusing to see, or accept, the truth that is right in front of them. That truth is; the more power you give government, the more you ask government to do for you, the less freedom you enjoy.
Can people not see that once they start off down that path, it only leads to one inevitable outcome – the complete loss of ALL their freedom? Daniel Webster once said something that people would do well to consider, “There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
I think that there are many who confuse their ability to do certain things with freedom; the two are not synonymous. Let’s use going somewhere in your car or truck as an example. Sure, you can hop in your vehicle and drive to the grocery store, a concert, or on a scenic drive through the countryside; that doesn’t mean that just because you can do these things you are free.
First of all, to operate that vehicle you must obtain an operators permit, or a drivers license from government. Also, your vehicle must be registered with the government; displaying a sticker that shows law enforcement that you have complied with this requirement. Failure to comply with either of these requirements can result in a hefty fine, jail time, and the loss of your ability to travel in your motor vehicle.
You call that freedom? I call it a privilege with certain strings attached that we must comply with, or lose that privilege. There is hardly anything that we do these days that does not have those kinds of strings attached to them; go hunting or fishing, opening/operating a business, building a home, or carrying a firearm on our persons for our own personal protection. The thing is, if you require permission from government, in the form of a license or permit, or if you must pay a tax or a fee to do something, it is not free; meaning you don’t have the freedom to do it without complying with those requirements first.
If you aren’t free to do something without first obtaining permission from some agency, or government official, then you are not actually free, you are a slave; or at best, a serf who has been granted permission by their master to enjoy certain privileges so long as you comply with all their restrictions, regulations, rules, ordinances, taxes, fees, licenses and permits.
Even though this was written 187 years ago, it is an accurate rendition of how we exist today:
“Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?
Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” (Source: Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville)
You’re lying to yourself if you say that is not an accurate description of your life today…
Regardless, that is why I believe that most people have no idea what it means to be truly free; for they think that what they experience is freedom; when in truth it is a form of bondage, or servitude. A truly free person does not require permission from anyone to exercise their freedom; the only limitation being that they do not violate the equal rights of others while exercising that freedom.
Whether people are willing to accept this or not, the truth is that government is a greedy son of a bitch; the more power it gets, the more it wants. Unless the people stand up to it, government will keep on passing laws that give itself more power, while at the same time, depriving the people of their freedom. What’s truly sad about it is the fact that most people are willing to give up their freedom if government promises to provide them with comfort and security, and the best way to ensure there is a constant need for the things people want from government is to provide a steady stream of threats and crises which lead the people to clamor, “Please do something!”
People don’t seem to realize that there is a plan to all this; keep providing us with, or creating these crises, and the masses will beg for government to come to their rescue; at the cost of a bit more of their freedom, of course. The thing is, the next crisis is going to hit people where it hurts the most; in their ability to put food on the table to feed their families.
How many of you remember the shortages in the stores (especially toilet paper and paper towels) after the initial lockdowns due to Covid. Certain items were just impossible to find, while others were hit and miss – you had to be there when they came in or you missed out. I can’t honestly say whether that was a test run for what is coming, or if it was the first stage of what’s on the horizon; enough of an interruption in the supply chain to weaken it so that when what is coming hits, it will collapse entirely.
I do know that, if you have to shop weekly for food, when what’s coming hits, you’re going to go hungry. Now you might be saying that the government isn’t going to let people starve. I disagree; at least they won’t do anything until the panic has reached the point where people are willing to give up more of their freedom if they let government assume control of the entire food chain; from production all the way to distributing it to the people. Once that happens it may as well be game over; you’ll accept anything they impose upon you if the price for disobedience is the inability to feed your family.
You might also be saying that they cannot predict a food shortage. Maybe, maybe not; they can read the signs; much better than most people, and they may even be able to speed things along; if you will. I see what’s happening, both globally and nationally, and I can see the signs as well; we’re coming up on something that is gonna hurt a lot of people; particularly those who rely upon supermarkets for their food, or those who haven’t taken measures to prepare for emergencies by stockpiling essential items.
The writing is on the wall; the problem is, most people can’t read what’s been written. Here are just a few of the things I’ve seen that lead me to believe we are in for a world of hurt.
Most people watch the news and think only in terms of the ‘supposed’ atrocities being committed by Russia upon the Ukrainians. What they don’t realize is that we get a lot of our fertilizer, and the ingredients to make it, from Russia. The ban on Russian goods by the Biden administration is going to hit farmers hard; with rising costs to grow the food we eat, and in some instance, the inability to produce enough food to feed the nation. So, at the least you can expect to see the skyrocketing prices go up even more, if not complete shortages in certain goods come during harvest time.
Then there is U.S. fertilizer production. Due to fires at fertilizer producing facilities, and derailments of trains delivering fertilizer, we can expect to see a further depletion of the fertilizer supply that farmers depend upon to grow their crops. A conductor (train driver) with more than 30 years experience operating trains stated, “We have more derailments with fertilizer trains this year [2021] than during my entire professional life.”
Then, on top of all that, Union Pacific has decided to cut back on how much of the raw ingredients for fertilizer it will deliver by train. CF Industries is one of the companies that uses Union Pacific to deliver one of the key ingredients for making fertilizer – nitrogen. CF Industries is one of fertilizer producing companies that will be affected by UP’s decision.
Tony Will, who is the CEO of CF Industries, stated, “The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers. Not only will fertilizer be delayed by these shipping restrictions, but additional fertilizer needed to complete spring applications may be unable to reach farmers at all. By placing this arbitrary restriction on just a handful of shippers. Union Pacific is jeopardizing farmers’ harvests and increasing the cost of food for consumers.”
That’s just fertilizer that is needed to grow the food we eat…unfortunately, there is more.
Then there is the fact that a suspicious number of fires and plane crashes into food production facilities has shut down, or hampered their ability to meet customer demands for their goods. Since last year there have been at least 25 fires, or plane crashes, at food processing plants in the United States. Among those affected are Kellogg, Tyson, Nestle, General Mills, Taylor Farms, Louis Dreyfuss, Deli Star Meat Processing, and a Walmart distribution center in Indiana.
My wife eats a lot of Tyson chicken; both their sliced chicken breasts and the crispy chicken strips. We’ve learned that if we see it on the shelf, we better grab as much of it as we can fit into our freezer; for it isn’t something that is delivered to the stores on anything resembling a regular basis. I fear, things will only get worse before they get better!
How do you think the food you eat gets from the plants that produce it to the stores where you buy it? How many of you have cursed all the big rigs hogging up the highway while you’re trying to get somewhere? Those trucks are, for the most part, how our stores get the food they put on the shelf for you to buy. Are you aware that there now exists a shortage of qualified truck drivers in the United States? According to data, we need 60,000 new truck drivers to be able to keep up with the demand for the goods they deliver. There are many reasons for this shortage, but the important thing is that there just aren’t enough drivers to keep up with demands.
Those are just a few of the reasons I see a food crisis on the horizon; I’ll leave it up to you to do some digging to discover more things that might affect your ability to put food on the table. The question is, how long would you survive if the shelves were empty in your grocery store of choice? More importantly, what would you give up if the government promised to ensure that you could obtain food to feed your family?
Would you be willing to accept a ration card that authorized you to only purchase certain essential items, in certain quantities? Would you be willing to turn in suspected hoarders (those who have prepared for such emergencies) if you were promised an increase in your rations?
I kind of wonder what would happen if something like that happened; turning in hoarders that is. From what I understand, those who follow the Mormon faith; Latter Day Saints as they prefer to be called, are urged by church leaders to stockpile up to a years-worth of food for emergencies. Would the church lose its tax-exempt status if it refused to used that food to feed those in need? Would people give them a pass, since it is part of their religious dogma?
A lot of things could happen, but one thing is certain; if people start starving, things in this country will get ugly, and get ugly fast. If/when that happens, the majority would sell their very souls if their government promised to feed them regularly. If that does happen, then it will be bye bye freedom; for who is going to resist those who ensure that their bellies remain full. As the old saying goes…
“You don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you.”
Those in power know this, the question is, do you? Will you give up the very last vestiges of your freedom when it comes, or are you prepared and self-sufficient enough to ride out what I fear is coming? I hope it never comes; I really do. But if it does, don’t come knocking on my door…those who you used to laugh at (Preppers) have tried to warn you. Now it will be our turn to laugh…
April 29, 2022
~ The Author ~
Neal Ross, Student of history, politics, patriot and staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Send all comments to: bonsai@syix.com.
If you liked Neal’s latest column, maybe you’ll like his latest booklet: The Civil War: (The Truth You Have Not Been Told). Life continues to expand for this prolific writer and guardian of TRUE American history.