March 3, 2012

The Federal Government is Out of Control

Personal Freedom, Where's the Line?

Originally Published on April 9, 2004

GARY - Our Founding Fathers would not recognize this country as the one they founded. The Federal government is out of control, literally; it no longer answers to the States or the People. A powerful Federal government was a primary fear of the Founding Fathers, and the American Constitution was written to specifically limit the authority of the Federal government over the States and the People. The Founding Fathers KNEW that a powerful Federal government would be contrary to the vision of freedom and individual rights they had for America. Of course, they had little difficulty in convincing the colonial populace of the threat to individuals posed by an out of control government. Not so today.

Americans take freedom for granted and are blind to the basic principles and responsibilities of being free. We have already given up a large portion of the freedoms the Founding Fathers secured for us, and we continue to give up more on a daily basis. We have gone from punishing those who violate their responsibilities in a free society to imposing necessity and constraint upon everyone in a ludicrous attempt to "ensure" security for all.

We trade away our personal responsibilities and freedoms for false security without a moment's hesitation. We are stupefied by fear of our neighbors and any possibility they may be doing something we don't understand or may not agree with. We all want to be free but don't want our neighbors to be so. We recoil in shock and disgust at terrorist activity on our soil, as we should, but then allow the Federal government to take away more rights and freedoms without blinking an eye.

The loss of rights and freedoms should generate within the People a greater amount of shock and disgust than any terrorist attack. Alas, it does not, and America happily gives up the ideals and principles which set us aside from every other nation on Earth ...

Our security infrastructure is concerned only with security; with enforcing and imposing necessity and constraint upon choice and action. And we willingly let them do it. In fact, as a democracy, we impose it upon ourselves because we have come to believe that security is more desireable than freedom.

More and more regulations, fewer and fewer freedoms. When does it stop? When are there too many regulations and we are no longer free? Is there a number? Is there a limit? Should the government have the power to even regulate individual actions at all? To what extent? If you cannot answer these questions, we are already lost. If you do not understand how and why the Constitution was written as it was, there is little hope left and we have become, as Ben Franklin described, deserving of neither freedom nor security.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

1 comment:

  1. Unfortunately, it is too late. The US is lost. The world is lost, for that matter.

    The people have already lost too much freedom, and any attempt to change that now (short of armed revolt) will be ignored, or worse: punished. And that's if people even wake up and realize what's going on.

    The government has even gone so far as to throw back in the people's faces that they have no power. The SOPA and PIPA bills failed, but less than 24 hours later, the federal government seized and shut down Megaupload (One of the most well know sites on the net) purely on accusation. They didn't need the bills to pass. They didn't need the law, because as far as they're concerned, they are the law.

    The people have become nothing more than a disposable work force for the rich and powerful. We're kept uniformed, distracted with shiny cell phones and tablets, and each day more and more of our freedoms are taken without us even realizing it... We're boiled frogs.

    I'm not religious, but even I have to say:

    God save us all...

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