The ancient Greeks experimented with democracy and the ancient Romans introduced the republic (embraced by America’s founding fathers to minimize state power) but for the most part folks were not deemed to have any rights.
Then the unthinkable happened. In Europe, Western Civilization was born as folks started to clamor for political rights, property rights and natural rights. Monarchies began to topple, theocratic powers were usurped and the revolution for human liberty began. Although Europe was a bloodbath on and off for nearly a millennium, the great political theorists and intellectual challengers who conceived and fought to implement such foreign concepts as non-repressive forms of government and individual sovereignty finally succeeded. Eventually, limited personal freedoms and rights translated into much wider economic freedoms which elevated industry and trade while spawning an economically strong middle class.
Throughout the process, we all learned that the vast human potential so inherent in the minds and souls of free thinking human beings is, ultimately, the only catalyst for progress and civilization, without which there can no civilizations, at least none worth noticing or experiencing. Greatness and human liberation are soul mates.
The grand experiment worked wonders as power and wealth was shifting away from the 1% and to the 99%. Shorn of their shackles, mankind prospered for the first time in human history and at an unprecedented rate. A strong and flourishing middle class was born as free markets were delivering good and services, and prosperity for the masses (99%) was achieved. There was peace instead of war and government had limited powers.
But the 1% started screaming “holy shit, we can’t let that happen. We can’t allow the lowlife people and the unwashed masses to be in charge with free markets and sound money so we will work to transfer that power back to us.” But the folks had tasted liberty, loved it and so selling the idea of servitude was a daunting and challenging task. However, the 1% have always been extraordinarily clever. This time around they concocted warm and fuzzy ideologies like socialism, statism, Marxism, communitarianism, globalism, environmentalism, progressivism, collectivism and other ‘ism’s’ to lure the people away from their liberty and prosperity.
These days, the remnants of power, royal families and the world’s elites are now concentrated in 20th century statism (government control of everything), finance (banksters transferring wealth from the 99% to the 1%) and corporatism, plutocracy, oligarchy and monopoly. They no longer need whips, chains, shackles and armies to subdue the people. All they needed to do was sell democracy and get us to vote ourselves back into slavery. It was a brilliant strategy that worked beyond their wildest expectations.
And thus, the small window of human liberty was nailed shut; only this time around the Sheeple People voluntarily marched back to the slavery plantation of the 1%.
Moral of the story: giving any government any power is the equivalent of consenting to slavery.
Judy that is a fantastic article. I do believe there is always a 1% - even in a free market. The difference is that in the free market being the 1% is a reward for ability. Whereas in an economy dominated by the state (as is increasingly the case) a person takes a position in the 1% using political pull. I realize you see that too. Again, you've written a fantastic article.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words James. I have absolutely no problem with the 1% if they earned their money in the free market and honestly. They are being rewarded voluntarily by the 99%.
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog-post Judy; and oh-so-true!
ReplyDeleteRon Paul has expounded upon what James is saying. Dr. Paul has mentioned numerous times that true entrepreneurship and "just wealth" should be lauded. It's the ones (banksters, cronyists, etc.) who gained their wealth through nefarious means who should be vilified and brought to justice.
I'm a huge Ron Paul supporter! My Fascistbook page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/judy.morris.report