Zapp Brannigan
Captain of the Nimbus
"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson
I saw a conservative from the country-ass town I grew up in post this as his status just now.
Here's how I'm interpreting it. Dude may honestly fear his government because he has an unreasonable fear of Barack Obama. However, Barack Obama isn't where is fear should be placed because knowing what I know about this guy, Obama is not going to do anything to keep the guy who posted from living his life the way that he wants to.
That isn't to say that there shouldn't be any fear to be had at all, though. There are plenty of people to fear that aren't actually officially with the government. These people are global financiers, special operations mercenaries, and propagandists that want nothing more than to distort his view of the world in order to make him easier to brainwash.
The issue isn't whether something has the official label of "government" on it or not, the matter is if there is an intense power disparity between different parties when it comes to who makes the decisions in a society. Ron Paul fans often miss this one. They say, "WE HATE BIG GOVERNMENT!!" because they think that helping the poor hurts their freedom, but in all honesty it just doesn't affect them.
In this case, the fear of government is the result of tyranny, but in an unexpected way. Government, when working properly, serves as a foil to extremely powerful private interests that could run the risk of violating the rights of its people. Government hasn't been doing this because of deregulation over the last 30-something years, so now the powerful private interests are creating a social climate that causes people to hate and fear their own government in order to be able to accrue even more wealth and power while at the same time stamping out their final rise to the top.
There is fear of the government, and there is arguably tyranny that goes hand in hand with it. However, the tyranny is coming from the powerful moneyed interests, and unfortunately because of the fear of the government to empower itself to counter these interests, the tyranny has fertile room to grow.
The tide is turning against them, however, which is why the rich and powerful moneyed interests are acting the way that they are.
Now I know that people are going to respond with the American government doing various violent excursions overseas, but even to this I'd argue that this was because the American government wasn't powerful enough to stand up to the moneyed interests that fueled those wars because of the way that our election system works.
Am I wrong? If I am, please let me know.
I saw a conservative from the country-ass town I grew up in post this as his status just now.
Here's how I'm interpreting it. Dude may honestly fear his government because he has an unreasonable fear of Barack Obama. However, Barack Obama isn't where is fear should be placed because knowing what I know about this guy, Obama is not going to do anything to keep the guy who posted from living his life the way that he wants to.
That isn't to say that there shouldn't be any fear to be had at all, though. There are plenty of people to fear that aren't actually officially with the government. These people are global financiers, special operations mercenaries, and propagandists that want nothing more than to distort his view of the world in order to make him easier to brainwash.
The issue isn't whether something has the official label of "government" on it or not, the matter is if there is an intense power disparity between different parties when it comes to who makes the decisions in a society. Ron Paul fans often miss this one. They say, "WE HATE BIG GOVERNMENT!!" because they think that helping the poor hurts their freedom, but in all honesty it just doesn't affect them.
In this case, the fear of government is the result of tyranny, but in an unexpected way. Government, when working properly, serves as a foil to extremely powerful private interests that could run the risk of violating the rights of its people. Government hasn't been doing this because of deregulation over the last 30-something years, so now the powerful private interests are creating a social climate that causes people to hate and fear their own government in order to be able to accrue even more wealth and power while at the same time stamping out their final rise to the top.
There is fear of the government, and there is arguably tyranny that goes hand in hand with it. However, the tyranny is coming from the powerful moneyed interests, and unfortunately because of the fear of the government to empower itself to counter these interests, the tyranny has fertile room to grow.
The tide is turning against them, however, which is why the rich and powerful moneyed interests are acting the way that they are.
Now I know that people are going to respond with the American government doing various violent excursions overseas, but even to this I'd argue that this was because the American government wasn't powerful enough to stand up to the moneyed interests that fueled those wars because of the way that our election system works.
Am I wrong? If I am, please let me know.
and want to know more.
