Another Hardscrabble Farmer picture postcard of words.
We met in the parking lot of the old village church. Everyone was on time and after exchanging pleasantries we made our way over to the cemetery for the service. Our veterans group is small, there may be a dozen men in all, most of them Viet Nam era vets, a few guys from the Korean war and myself, although middle aged the youngest of the group. We have taken on the maintenance of the local Veterans Hall, a simple yet stately building that went up after the Civil War that serves as a gathering place for community wide functions. We see to it that there is an annual service for both Memorial Day and Veterans Day, that the flag is always flown and serviceable and when a local veteran is laid to rest, like today, that they are honored for their service. Old men with quaint ideas about community and loyalty marking rituals and traditions with their presence.
It was a quintessential Indian Summer day; deep blue skies, a soft warm breeze from the south, white fluffy clouds moving leisurely across the earl Autumn sky making their way to some other place like the flocks of birds that have passed through all week. Saturday marked the peak of leaf season, bright swaths of forest set alight with crimson, pumpkin orange and blinding yellow foliage. Today marked a re-interment of two local men, a father who served in the First World War and a son who served in the next. They had been laid to rest in a family plot years before, but the property had sold and now the family was moving them to the local cemetery for their final resting place. The site is situated between two small mountains in one of the few flats in the area. By the time we arrived the family had gathered near the gates dressed in funereal colors and due to the nature of the day there was lack of gravity. Sorrow had been replaced by reflection and time and in its place there was a sense of respectfulness and honor.
The color guard was formed, those with rifles took their place, the bugler wiped the brass bell of his horn and when the command was given men who hadn’t been in the military for over half a century snapped on command like young recruits. We marched into the cemetery, took our places and as the minister read his words of remembrance the family stood together, generations of relatives bound by blood and love clustered around the graves.
It’s been a while since I have been to church. There are parts that I miss and the passage that the minister read- the 23rd psalm- is one of them. He made a special point of reference to the line, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures…” stating that it was in fact a command. That all of us are limited by our mortality to a specific amount of time here on Earth and that when our time is over, our service complete, we find a final rest in a place evocative of tenderness and warmth. Green pastures. As I stood there at parade rest, in ranks with men who would at some time in the not too distant future be on the other side of our formation, I felt like I could see it all. The great sweep of my life, from playing army as a little boy to serving my country as a soldier, all the way to the grave beneath a headstone marked by a small American flag that represented a time of service. Time sped up, compacted into a singular moment that all of us share. The brilliant hues of fall foliage contrasted against the azure sky, the caress of sweet breezes reminiscent of a Summer that was already gone, the sound of the flag snapping methodically against itself and at last after the pastor had finished, the cracking report of rifles fired three times on command echoing between those mountains…
When the bugler began to play taps those first three notes welled up inside of me a flood of memories. The brassy sound played with solemn precision as a coda to the lives of real men with loyal families, forever absent from the world filled the air with a sadness I cannot explain. The final note carried for a moment and then was gone. We were called once more to attention, marched past the family gathering and were dismissed back into our lives.
Later, as I walked back up the driveway to the house my youngest son caught sight of me and with the dogs came running down to meet me. The joy of that moment filled my heart back up and we went about our day- and it was an exceptionally beautiful one- with all the ardor and enthusiasm we could muster. We split wood, pulled carrots, grilled steaks, painted the pickets on the fence between the house and the barn and by nightfall we drifted indoors to find rest, albeit temporary, from the service of living.
I wonder how much longer it will continue, these rituals, the small flags adorning the graves of those who gave of themselves for something greater, the men gathering in solemn remembrance of other men bound by a brotherhood not of blood but of common beliefs when the transformation is complete. There will never be a final demarcation between one country and another just as there is no definitive border between seasons- one thing slowly becomes another until the past is but a memory. I do know that somewhere out there that final note of taps has yet to become completely silent even as I lay my head down to sleep. As long as someone remembers, nothing is ever really gone.
I’m sorry for those who lost lives and limbs in wars.
I’m sorry for those they left behind, or on whom the burdens of caring for the half-dead fall.
I’m also sorry that these men (and some women) participated, often willingly, in warfare that was not just optional, it was a malevolent force that planted its own evil seeds.
Had the Confederacy been allowed to peacefully exit the voluntary union of states that formed the original USA, there would have been no unified State for Wilson to, a few short decades later, lie into World War One.
Without the USA to break the stalemate of Europe’s latest conflagration, Germany would not have been forced into a totally one-sided disaster called the Treaty of Versailles.
Without the Treaty of Versailles and all the bitter destruction it visited on Germany, there would have been no reason for the rise of Nazism and Hitler…no World War Two.
Without the breaking of the European Stalemate, a negotiated peace would have (as usual in Europe) emerged and very possibly Tsarist Russia would not have fallen to the Bolsheviks.
Recall that somewhere upwards of 200-300 million souls suffered and died at the hands of communist despots during the 20th century.
So when I read of ceremony and such regarding those who died in battle or those who survived and then know how to “snap to attention” on command, I am reminded that ALL ACTIONS have UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES and that war, of all human activities, has the most.
What we’re told were wars of Great Purpose always sowed seeds of purest evil, and those evils are ignored whenever stories emerge of courage and valor.
At Bastiat was famous for writing, it it all about What is Seen and What is Not Seen. When it comes to war, honoring fallen soldiers and discussing the events surrounding their lives and deaths, we are FOREVER hearing about what is SEEN, but ignoring what is UNSEEN.
All of these men died in endeavors that should NEVER have been undertaken.
“….we drifted indoors to find rest, albeit temporary, from the service of living.”
This thing we call life is a strange thing indeed.
The older I get the more I question what it’s really all about, and it drives me nuts sometimes, all the hustle, all the hassles just to pay the bills that we created and all the heartache we endure to serve the nation.
Not sure if we are progressing or just rushing to an end.
dc – It goes back to when the Collectivists (Federalists) co-opted the Revolution and replaced the Articles of Confederation with a malleable Constitution. If we had stayed under the Articles of Confederation we should have turned out more like the Confederation of Helvetian States than the Roman Empire.
Roy, you NAILED it.
Can you wrap your mind around what the world might be like, if North America had become what basically Switzerland is?
I can only dimly imagine the breadth and depth of prosperity under which we’d live. If people think the engine of innovation in North America was good, a truly free system these past 220 years probably would have raised it to the 5th power, with no end in sight. Instead, we’re in the twilight of decent living standards for most people.
The wise weep not for what is, but for what could be but isn’t.
HSF ” the small flags adorning the graves of those who gave of themselves for something greater,”
And what is greater than the the gift of life? Taking another’s for the sake of Empire?
Iraq: I Served
Laurence M. Vance
I didn’t. And thank God I didn’t. This is the newest bumper sticker I have seen. But what does it really mean? Here are some options:
Iraq: I made widows and orphans.
Iraq: I killed.
Iraq: I destroyed property.
Iraq: I maimed.
Iraq: I helped build the warfare state.
Iraq: I earned a paycheck.
Iraq: I don’t care about the Constitution.
Iraq: I fought a senseless, immoral, and unjust war.
Iraq: I fought a foreign war contrary to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers.
Iraq: I served the state.
Iraq: I blindly obeyed orders.
Iraq: I was duped by the state.
Iraq: I was a pawn of the U.S. government.
Iraq: I served the military-industrial complex.
I am sorry if I have been misunderstood. I blame that on my own failure to communicate clearly rather than on the reader being able to understand what I have written.
When I say that someone has given service to something greater than himself, I mean the collective that we call our nation. Whether you believe in that is your business and I am in no way trying to promote militarism or warfare. Men volunteer to serve for a variety of reasons, each of them personable and unknowable but for that individual. The reality is that they do in fact sacrifice their time, their youth, and on occasion their life and limbs for something other than their own selfish ends. Whether that is for good or evil would depend on the time and circumstances and on the type of leadership and their motives for going to war. A man can be proud of the individual sacrifice of his comrades without taking pride in the underlying reasons for going to war. As I have tried to tell my children again and again, in war there is no good guy, there is no bad guy. War is a shameful fact of the human condition, but it is also a place of unfathomable bravery, humility, sacrifice and honor and on both sides. In a world as shamefully focused on the gratification of the individual at the cost of everything else, perhaps there is something to be learned from it.
I was simply trying to point out that things alter before us, often during our own lifetimes and we hardly notice the changes, like one season inexorably changing into another. The things that connect us that do last are the relationships we’ve built through life; our families, our friends, our communities and our brotherhoods.
You cannot undo the mistakes you make, but you can change the world for the better every single day if you do something positive, whatever that thing might be. And whatever changes you live through, you can always do something to preserve a little bit of the past that deserves to be a part of the future.
HTH
” … one thing slowly becomes another until the past is but a memory.” ——— HF
Basically, our family summer destinations were either Sandy Hook Park (sea shore) or, Swartswood State Park, a gorgeous lake in NJ. You could rent rowboats at Swartswood back then … $10, all day.
Actual photo of park.
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Sometimes I would get in the boat and row out about 100 feet, just to get away from my sister, and so I could read a book. I’d finish a chapter and look up, and “all of a sudden” I was on the other side of the lake! I never once felt the imperceptible drift carrying me away.
My marriage ended that way for the most part. Sure, we had some big arguments … mostly about raising the kids and going to church. But, we did last 19 years, so most of the disagreements were petty and small, like that light current that was invisible to me. Then one day I think we both “woke up” wondering who in the hell the other person was.
I loved my country once … this country, the one that took us in, the one I adopted … or, did they adopt me? As a teenager I was in the Civil Air Patrol, and once carried the American Flag during our town’s Memorial Day Parade … my mother following along the sidewalk yelling to everyone within earshot, “That’s my son!!”. I was in the Honor Guard in the USAF. I loved this country. When did I drift away?
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I was a born-again Christian once. Loved God with all my heart, soul, and mind. I drifted away from that also.
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Instead of a tombstone, maybe on my grave they should place a piece of driftwood.
HSF,
Your writing so so beautiful and poetic. I have recently been to funerals for WWII vets and while wars may be sold to the public in a well packaged Bernaysian propaganda package, it takes nothing away from the sacrifices of these individuals. As you put so eloquently the sacrifice on both sides is both momentous and horrific. Until all of humankind can tear itself away from its natural instinct to dominate and conquer there will, sadly, always be war.
Bob.
@hardscrabble,
I’m not trying to bust your chops. I only suggest that the descriptors you chose (unfathomable bravery, humility, sacrifice and honor) are part of the mythology used to motivate people to participate.
There are a very few honest books about actually BEING in a wartime battle. The ones that seem to earn the most plaudits describe an experience of abject terror, total confusion, horrific smells, sounds and sights, and what comes to be for many people an inescapable sense of self-loathing.
The stories of camaraderie and so forth are, from this viewpoint, rationalizations participants conjure in order to avoid the fate of the homeless, divorced, emaciated, drug-or-booze-addicted PTSD sufferer. A participant either shields his mind from reality or finds inescapable demons in his dreams.
Normal people have an inborn aversion to killing other humans. Military training, especially post-WW2, goes to great lengths to cauterize soldiers’ consciences, to enable them to be better robotic-orders-obeying killing machines. It cannot be otherwise, since in the modern era there are no recognized non-combatants. Men, women and children are potential fighters, so everyone above the age of 3 is “fair game.” Warfare is the equivalent of “catching a murderer” by dropping a 2000 lb bomb on the densely occupied neighborhood in which he resides.
Tolstoy tells us that wars will end when young men stop volunteering to fight them. The first step toward this is to strip our language of words that celebrate battle, instead letting the truth of the horrors of war come through loud and clear.
Recall the story of the soldier who awakens in a dark place, and slowly discovers that while he survived the battle, he has no eyes, no ears, no arms or legs and no tongue or mouth. He learns to communicate with a nurse by Morse code, lifting his head to tap out the words.
When one day the nurse won’t let his bed remain in a sunny courtyard he is dismayed and demands to know why they are shunting him back into a dark and fetid place. She responds that his presence horrifies visitors whose belief in the goodness of the war effort must not be shaken.
Every young man should read that story. Of course, a teacher that suggested such would be fired in a New York Minute.
“Johnny Got his Gun” by Dalton Trumbo. Read it in high school, should be required reading.
Bob.
I’ve know many men who’ve engaged in some atrocious killings during war-time and not a one was proud of or undamaged spiritually by what they’d seen and done…and damn few gathered in clusters to relive it.
It’s been my experience that the majority pot-bellied imbeciles staring vacantly at a flag while holding a salute never saw action outside of the Monday morning chow line haze, but nevertheless they enjoyed the victory via the body count as long as someone else was doing the killing.
If men where sane enough to pick just wars under the banner of free society the inglorious waste of treasure and life masquerading a nation building would never have been embarked upon much less insanely championed…sheesh…. expect the show to go own as long as the fools who lead have mass of morons willing to follow.
http://www.voxday.blogspot.com/
Baghdad falling
Baghdad stands on the brink as we observe 4th Generation Warfare in action:
Fierce fighting has been reported on the outskirts of Baghdad where ISIS militants are attempting to seize control of the Iraqi capital – despite ongoing Western airstrikes against the terror group.
The fighting is taking place just one mile to the west of the city, with government forces desperately trying to hold off the militants, who allegedly killed up to 1,000 soldiers during clashes yesterday.
ISIS have held a number of towns and villages close to the Iraqi capital since earlier in the year, when government troops melted away following a lightning advance in the west of the country – enabling the terrorist group to seize further swaths of territory for their so-called caliphate.
Once ISIS takes Baghdad, I think it will be time to drop the “so-called” from the description of the caliphate. I’m far from only one who expected a new caliphate to arise in the Middle East, but I am a little astonished at the speed with which it has risen and filled the vaccuum left by the ill-considered American conquest of Ba’athist Iraq. Consider William Lind’s predictions back in 2004:
An article in the Friday, March 29 Washington Post pointed to the long-expected opening of Phase III of America’s war with Iraq. Phase I was the jousting contest, the formal “war” between America’s and Iraq’s armies that ended with the fall of Baghdad. Phase II was the War of National Liberation waged by the Baath Party and fought guerilla-style. Phase III, which is likely to prove the decisive phase, is true Fourth Generation war, war waged by a wide variety of non-state Iraqi and other Islamic forces for objectives and motives that reach far beyond politics.
The Post article, “Iraq Attacks Blamed on Islamic Extremists,” contains the following revealing paragraph:
In the intelligence operations room at the 1st Armored Division’s headquarters (in Baghdad), wall-mounted charts identifying and linking insurgents depict the changing battlefield. Last fall the organizational chart of Baathist fighters and leaders stretched for 10 feet, while charts listing known Islamic radicals took up a few pieces of paper. Now, the chart of Iraqi religious extremists dominates the room, while the poster depicting Baathist activity has shrunk to half of its previous size.
The article goes on to quote a U.S. intelligence officer as adding, “There is no single organization that’s behind all this. It’s far more decentralized than that.”
Welcome to Phase III. The remaining Ba’athists will of course continue their War of National Liberation, and Fourth Generation elements have been active from the outset. But the situation map in the 1st Armored Division’s headquarters reveals the “tipping point”: Fourth Generation war is now the dominant form of war against the Americans in Iraq.
And with the fall of Baghdad, Phase III of America’s war with Iraq will be complete and mark America’s defeat by the very 4th Generation elements of whom Lind warned ten years ago.
Normal people have an inborn aversion to killing other humans…. Not so says 6000 years of human history.Not so says this century with at least 100 million. killed . Not so says the bible.
Why do you think GOD has to remind people not to kill , murder , rape ,steal covet.In man’s fallen sinful state murder and killing come as natural as sleeping. In our sinful state we are truly natural born killers.In fact the only thing that keeps genocide at bay is God’s restraining Grace .DC are your becoming a liberal ?Liberals believe humans are good and decent. All they need is education and a good environment what ever that means . DC sometimes you are so silly.
My freshman year in college I was required to read “Johnny Got His Gun”. Eye opener. What an ending. Yes it should be required by all. I believe it was banned for a while.
Half p., another graduate from dumb butt Jr college .Half p has enlightenment .Pls do tell us about Johnnie got a gun.More liberal nonsense.
bb, think about the logic.
Men are bad. They cannot be trusted not to kill, rob and rape each other.
So we create this monopoly system, staffed by the same men (or worse, the men who REALLY want to lord it over their fellows) and THIS is the system that will keep them from killing, robbing and raping each other.
A 9 year old can see how absurd is this little thought exercise.
No, I’m not a “liberal” in today’s parlance. I am a person who sees TWO and only two ways to organize human interaction.
1. through the market, which is characterized by mutually voluntary exchange and production.
2. the political means, AKA theft, fraud, force, and threats thereof.
This makes me a political anarchist. Proudhon got it right when he said liberty is the mother, not the daughter, of order. A fully politicized society looks like a penitentiary. A free society looks like a farmer’s market.
I believe people want order. They err, however, in thinking order comes from the top down via political systems. On the contrary, it comes from the bottom up, or NOT AT ALL.
If we have an increasingly disorderly society (and we do), then paradoxically the WORST thing to do is try more laws, more law enforcement, more war on this that and the other thing. Squeezing harder simply yields chaos, not order.
That this axiom is invisible to most people explains thousands of years of Stupid Human Attempts to make pi = something other than 3.14 etc. The circle cannot be squared.
Does this make me a “modern liberal?” Given that “modern” liberals are statists to the core, leftists to the bone, I think not. Modern liberals have no problem with war. They’ve been warring on human nature since they appropriated the term from people 200 years ago who believed in free markets and reducing political interference as much as possible.
bb apparently “anti-war” is “looney liberal” in your vocabulary.
False dichotomies abound, don’t they?
Here, and I thought I applied an oversimplified model to the world…. (grin)
bb, people in the main are pretty decent.
Are you suggesting that, if not for your religion, you’d be raping and murdering with abandon? I wouldn’t be.
Violent crime (the freelance kind) is committed by a tiny fraction of the populace. The rest of us are no more likely to knock over grandma for her purse than we are to use the matches in our pockets to burn down the shopping mall.
Things like CCW are simply a recognition that a small subset of people are vicious. In my “libertarian Utopia” they’d all be rendered extinct in no time at all, since anyone who insisted on initiating violence against others would be unable to find insurance, and without insurance no one would sell him food, water, shelter, etc….and when he tried to take what he wanted, in no time he’d encounter someone whose aim is better and faster…or their defensive agents.
Instead, we take criminally-inclined people and encourage them to run for office…or study “law enforcement.” The very people who should NOT be given power are those who seek it most.
The absurdity of this is why your 6000 years of history look so blood-soaked.
D C , I am beginning to like you .I’ll be watching and reading. Right now your still on double secret probation.
I’m a curmudgeon in training. Still too young, but getting there.
@flash,
Careful of cross-posting VD’s stuff. (smile)
One minute I think he’s on the bleeding edge of the Next Big Wave, the next he’s busy insulting everyone who thinks remotely like me. Beale is a lightning rod of conflict; no wonder he lives outside the USA.
I consider blogs like his to be canaries in the proverbial coal mine. That people are beginning to write the previously unutterable is a sign of very intense social conflict coming our way.
Much of what he rails against merits tearing down (e.g., PC and the whole leftist paradigm) but sadly, the way it will be torn down is via conflict and suffering. Busts are the products of artificial booms, and social strife is often the product of stupid ideas writ large that eventually run their course and peter out.
dc, I’ve been reading Vox since way back and find little to disagree with him on…..but If you referring to his stance on libertarianism spiked with nationalism i.e. closed borders I have to agree with him on this one.No good will come from flooding this country will people who do not respect our cultural heritage or prefer tribal associations over established social values.
Vox considers himself a leader on the front lines of a cultural/religious war and as such is taking the war to the enemy.I’ve got nothing by applause for Vox…I only wish they’re were more of his caliber..
I also understand Vox is a militarily historian and pro war if the purpose is just .Also , I have no qualms with that.
The problem I have with war is when the easily led willing let themselves be used as pawns in foreign wars to indiscriminately kill thousands of innocents who have never threatened and have no means to threatened the security of our homeland. IMO Self defense begins and ends at our borders.
@hardscrabble:
Once again, you fill the page with pictures and feelings and visions not normally seen even from photographs.
You are obviously searching for something that was never there (in the whole) in that serving ones’ country almost always costs life, limb and agony unending.
Our great conundrum is that we, as a people, have lost both confidence and belief in our own country (for good reason, I might add) and until this 4th Turning has completed its’ grinding down phase, only then will whom ever is left alive will have a chance to start over.
Sadly, I have no more faith in their efforts than I have of my own.
But you keep on keeping one, making your piece of earth and family a better place and keep writing for TBP as you might just make a difference one person at a time.
MA
Tools of a murderous state.
“Old men with quaint ideas about community and loyalty marking rituals and traditions with their presence.”
—-from Hardscrabble’s article
Yep. We’re on the same wavelength, brother. Every word you said. No exceptions.
As for the others who dropped by to shit all over the article, fuck you. Starting with flash.
“Old men with quaint ideas about community and loyalty marking rituals and traditions with their presence.”fuck you. Starting with flash.
What do you do for your country or county that makes you and you kind outstanding purveyors of freedom and country…….or do you just mark that shit as tradition by your very presence whilst flitting around the nations golf courses on the dime of those that do produce and stand for something other than bullshit. Why don;t you tell us super sleuth , how you are owed a free ride into eternity because you protected our freedoms?
VFW hall in town at the edge of the main drag and every week their are a bunch of fat ass morons standing around either in biker costume or with patch covered military garb like little kids playing dress up . all hugged up starring blindly at a flag or a cross or a plywood cut -out of a soldier kneeling before a M-16 with a helmet on it. blubbering some fucking childish nonsense about protecting our freedom .
Now I know most of these guys and since I did serve , I could hang with these blubbering drama queens as well , but unlike them I actually get politically involved and try to stop some of the loss of local control via regionalism, smart growth, wildlands project and other Agenda 21 initiatives that are destroying the rights of property owners and citizens all over across nation.
I have yet to see one of these “protectors of freedom ” at any county meeting protesting anything done by the country government which they in turn have turned over to femi-nazis harpies and effeminate facsimiles of men. But , thanks anyway…I get it now .It’s not that ya’ll want to restore rituals and tradition , ya’ll are just marking it’s place…. protectors of freedom my hairy ass.sheesh..
The freedom that needs work is here at home ….
They Hate Us Because of Our Freedom
Column by Alfred A. Hambi…, posted on April 19, 2004
Whenever I hear ‘they hate us because of our freedom’ or “because they hate our way of life” or some other such drivel, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. If real people didn’t suffer the consequences of it, such ignorance would be amusing. But another annoying thing about statements like these is that they perpetuate the myth that we live in a land of freedom. The sad fact is, we are not free, and haven’t been for a long, long time.
In They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45, Milton Mayer wrote about how the German people kept believing they were still free while the Nazis were tightening their control and extending their power over every facet of life. At first people refused to see the obvious, because the infringements on their freedom were coming in small steps. Each of those small steps, on its own, seemed to be no big deal, nothing to rebel against. But by the time you could no longer ignore the big picture, it was too late. ‘Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing) . . . You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.’ Remember, all the people had to do for all that to happen was–nothing. The same phenomenon is happening right here, right now, in the U.S. of A. It had been proceeding at a slower rate than 70 years ago in Germany , but now the pace quickens.
I know there are some who will say, ‘Wait a minute, fella. You’re going too far. The U.S. of A. is still a free country.’ O.K., then. If you’re free, you should have no trouble doing something that people have done for time immemorial. Buy a cow, shelter and feed and care for it, milk it, and sell the milk. Go ahead, try it and see what happens. Come back and let us know how free you are to do such a simple thing, which has been done since the dawn of civilization.
Freedom is a state of being where an individual does not have to get permission in order to do something that harms no one else’s person or property. How many things can you do without getting some form of government permission? Can you build your house on your own property without obtaining government approval? Can you put a new room on your house? Or a new porch? Put in a new toilet? Or even put a shed in your backyard? If you are not free to make your home on your own property, you are not free.
Once you have that home, can you refuse to sell it to the government if they want to use your land for some other purpose? Can you make them go away simply by telling them, ‘I will not sell you my property, at any price!’ If you are not free to choose if, when, how, to whom, and for how much you will sell your property, you are not free.
Can you drive a motor vehicle across this ‘free’ country without someone in government approving of you as a driver? Or without getting government permission to use that vehicle on the roads? If you are not free to travel without permission, you are not free.
Can you buy a pistol without government permission? Can you drive across the country with it on your person, even if you have permission to drive a properly permitted vehicle? There’s a man, a good man from what I’ve heard, who got in trouble in Ohio for doing just that. And I’ll bet there are many more good people that I haven’t heard of who wound up in similar trouble. Let’s remind them how free they are. Could anyone even ride a horse cross-country, with an old Winchester rifle in a scabbard, without being hassled? If you are not free to have a firearm at hand for self-defense, no matter where you go, you are not free.
Are you free to say to the government, ‘I don’t like your retirement plan; therefore, I will no longer pay for it?’ Can you, without penalty, tell the government that you will no longer pay for subsidies, for regulations, for wars, for empire, or for any activities that you disapprove? If you are not free to refuse to pay for things that you do not want, you are not free.
If the government decides it needs more troops to build and maintain its empire, can you refuse to go if it calls for you? Will they leave you alone if you tell them you won’t kill and die for them? Can you simply ignore the draft, without consequence? Can you refuse to be a conscripted slave? If you are not free to tell the government ‘Hell no, I won’t go!’ you are not free.
Can you open a business, like a simple barbershop, without government permission? Or how about a bakery? A diner? A hot dog stand? A gun shop? It’s been said that before we invaded Iraq , there were more gun shops in Baghdad than in Washington D.C. Can you wire or plumb or fix TVs or cars without a government license? If you’re not free to make a living without getting permission, you are not free.
And once you have government approval to open a restaurant or bar, are you free to decide what people may do within your business? Can you choose whether or not they may smoke on the premises? Are you free to invite them to light up and enjoy a cigarette, a cigar, or a pipe with their drink, or after their meal? If you are not free to decide what people may or may not do on your property or within your business, you are not free.
Are you free to smoke a joint? Are you free to hire someone to help you satisfy a physical urge? You can do both in the same afternoon in Amsterdam . I haven’t heard of anybody attacking the Dutch because of their freedom. If you are not free to entertain your mind and body in any way that does not harm another, with anyone who is willing, you are not free.
Can you undergo any medical treatment you think is in your best interest? Can you use whatever drug you deem appropriate for your condition? Can you even get some marijuana to help you avoid nausea so you can keep your meds from coming back up? Can you get it just to feel a little better for a little while? If you are not free to pursue any treatment or use any substance you think might help you obtain, regain, or retain your health, you are not free.
Are you able to criticize political candidates by name? A week before the next election or primary, place a newspaper or TV or magazine or radio ad criticizing a candidate. Let us know how you fare. The Supreme Court says it’s okay to make that a crime. If you are not free to talk about politicians at any time, at any place, by any means, in any form, you are not free.
Can you take your children out of a government or conventional private school setting, without explaining to some bureaucrat how you plan to educate them? Can you homeschool them without getting government approval of your lesson plans? Can you tell everyone to buzz off, that it’s none of their business how or if you educate your kids? If you are not free to teach your children what you want, where you want, when you want, and how you want, you are not free.
So, let’s reiterate. You need government permission to make your home, travel, earn a living, defend yourself, obtain medical treatment, and educate your children. You will never get government approval for many of those things in many places. You will never get government permission to entertain your mind and body in unapproved ways. At certain times, you cannot criticize those who decide who and what gets approved. You must sell your property to the government if they want it, and you must kill and die for them if they tell you to. And you have no choice but to pay for it all anyway, whether you like it or not.
And still, we think we are free.
marking tradition and ritual , they said….phttt!
No, America Isn’t Communist; It’s Only 70% Communist
1. Topping Marx’s list is the abolition of private property.
True, private property exists, but only until the state wants to take it. With its powers of eminent domain, the government can and does confiscate people’s property when it wants for public use.
Your property isn’t unconditionally yours. Just think of property taxes, for example.
If it’s actually YOUR private property, then why would you need to pay tax on it? And why do they have the authority to take it from you if you don’t pay?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-29/no-america-isnt-communist-its-only-70-communist
“If it’s actually YOUR private property, then why would you need to pay tax on it?”
Because it is situated in a community and as part of a community you have obligations to offset the benefits received. If your home catches fire, would you rather fight it yourself or call a fire department to come to your aid? When you leave your property to go shopping in the middle of Winter, would you prefer to have the roads plowed or would you rather hike out in snowshoes?
Flash, u mad bro?
No man is an island. You didn’t diaper yourself, didn’t teach yourself to speak, to write, to use a hammer or to drive a car. You want to talk about mythology, then start with the myth of the individual. There is no such thing. You live in a society, benefit from the thousands of advances made before you came into being, from sanitation to electricity, all of which required the inputs of countless numbers of human beings working in concert. It is one thing to work towards self sufficiency in the provision of basic human needs and wants, but quite another to believe that everything is possible in atomized individualism.
Why else would you be sharing your thoughts on the Internet, using established connections on a device you neither invented nor built, in a language that has existed further back than you can trace your family tree in order to convince people that you are obligated for none of it?
I understand your disdain for hypocrisy and in large part share it, but awareness of it and wholesale rejection of everything simply because it has a taint of it is a radical position that serves naught.
Just sayin’.
HSF- no man may be an island, but we are all individuals first and foremost and thus have different desires and needs. That said, your situation in your present community is uniquely desirable to your means , operation and wants , but can that be said of all inhabitants of your tax district.
How do youngsters with little means and big dreams in your zoning/tax district fare? What regulatory/tax barriers are placed in their paths hindering their entrepreneurial ambition?
My father-in-law used to say that our local fire departments haven’t lost a chimney yet ,which while funny was also damn true.So , you’re situation with tax -funded fire departments may , by closer proximity provide better fire protection, but it in no way can justify a the broad argument that we should all be happy collectivists and pay out tributes without quibble.
I am not as much adamant about the tax we pay and the methodology used to access the tax-fair market my ass- and the misuses of my tax dollars , in particular, investments id dubious corporate endeavors, feel good charities for feral youts and the mountains of regulation dictating were I can work, at what I can work, permission and permits to work and build on land I worked thirty years to own, which I come to realize I do not.
How many county meetings have you attended championing the right of others, in particular the young, to create , build and grow just as you’ve been provided the liberty and good fortunes to proper from. How would your standing in the sacred community fare if you were to attend meeting and asset that property rights where the foundation of all our inalienable rights? ..about as well as the last liberal shit-hole you had to leave when you past political writings were passed around, I would wager.
I’m sure your comfortable now, making plenty of money and in good standing in the collective community marking tradition and ritual even if not in practice, but remember this , they are others , just as hungry for self-sustainability as yourself when you began , who are blocked from the markets, land ownership and job creation because of the regulatory and tax burdens which even though you aren’t responsible for them , they are supported by your tax dollars, and thus you must bear some responsibility for the burden on would be productive citizens who are forced out of the markets because of oppressive and restrictive government.
I understand, you’ve got yours ..I’ve seen it all around me for years now.
Code is written , villages are planned forcing kids into over-sized homes they neither can afford no have any other choices to makes, while the assholes who write this code grew up in large families housed in 1000 sg ft bungalows.
I understand, you’ve got yours protect your station at all costs ..I’ve seen it all around me for years now.
Sure champion high taxation enforced by harsh regulatory codes , but be aware that the kids your trampling into poverty via limited opportunity and high taxation will be your caretakers one day..and we’ll see how that community rolls.