The REAL Price of Freedom
I'm sure you've heard the saying: "Freedom isn't Free", it's usually shown next to a patriotic image involving the military. This vague, patriotic mantra that hides an implicit message: "Your freedoms come from soldiers, so you had better not speak out against the wars." If you want the explicit version all you need to do is to make some statement contradicting these assumptions.
That fallacies like this are accepted on face value and parroted by large portions of the population demonstrates that most people have no idea what freedom actually is.
Freedom does not come from soldiers. Soldiers aren't even free themselves, and no one can give what they don't possess. Freedom comes from the willingness to say no, and to back that statement up with non-compliance.
American's have lost their freedom. Not because of the influence of a foreign power, or even because of the corruption of their own government, but rather because all but small sliver of the population has has become a submissive people. Your government doesn't fear you, because they know that they don't even need a gun in your face to enslave you. At this point a mere letter from the IRS is enough to make most people bow their morality and give in.
What the American people need to understand is that the price of freedom is non-compliance and whatever consequences follow as a result. The consequences could be jail time, death, or if you are lucky enough to escape: permanent exile.
If there were enough of us willing to stop complying, the system would not be able to crush us all, but the reality of the matter is that most people aren't at that point yet. I don't say that in condemnation. I fully understand how terrifying it is to take the step to actual non-compliance. Having gone down that road, and still paying the price for that choice even to this day it has become harder and harder for me to say this to my audience. Not because I fear what people will think, but because many of you are my friends, and I honestly would be tormented if I was faced with the fact that someone I care about lost everything by applying my words in the real world.
I don't want to see freedom fighters thrown in jail or forced to leave their country, but at the same time I'm watching the results of inaction, and it's even more terrifying.
How do we change this? I don't know, but I sense that what it comes down to is that we must rebuild the psychology of the People one idea at a time. Perhaps it will take a long time, but perhaps not. Maybe as the the powers that be start taking off the gloves the seeds we've been planting will have the right conditions to sprout.
