By:Stephanie Shepard
www.timeofcalamity.com
We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, must hold those who set to destroy the nation accountable. After the War in Iraq, we the people, were outraged. After the fraud on Wall Street was revealed, we the people, were outraged. After the Bailouts, we the people, were outraged. After the announcement of Quantitative Easing, we the people, were outraged. After the NDAA was signed, we the people, were outraged. After Edward Snowden turned whistle blower on the NSA, we the people, were outraged.
“We the people” are the most powerful three words in the history of the United States. Those three words have the power of conviction. The group alignment of small individual power being pulled into the fold of collective power. Those on the top are a few. Though they hold the most sway individually, they are weak in comparison of the collective. It is not the Federal Government that decides the direction of the country. It is the people. Without the people there is no Union. The Federal Government is only as powerful as we acknowledge.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan
Excerpt from “Not everybody wants to be Free” by Didact:
Freedom, you see, is a very fragile thing. You cannot simply give freedom to people who are not willing to fight and sacrifice for it. As you go through life, you’re going to come across a lot of people- I would argue the majority of people- who just don’t want to be free. And why would they? If you think about it, freedom is actually bloody terrifying to most people.
When you have freedom- true freedom- you, and you alone, are responsible for your destiny. You can’t pass the buck for your failures as a human being over to your parents, or your church, or your government, or your children. You have to take responsibility for your actions. You have to fend for yourself. You have to accept that although many things are outside your control, those things that are within your control are difficult to deal with. You have to be willing to defend yourself- you can’t rely on anyone else to do it for you. You have to earn for yourself- you can’t mooch off the efforts of others. You have to exercise self-restraint and live in a manner that is consistent with your own principles- you can’t just bend or break them for a whim. You have to refuse the temptation to impose your desires upon others- because you don’t want them to do the same to you. You have to accept that when you screw up, it’s your damn fault and you need to fix it. You have to accept that you, and you alone, are responsible for your health, your body, your well-being, your money, your life, your family, and your relationship with God.
Put in these stark and simple terms, is it therefore at all surprising that most people would not want to be free at all? Are you then surprised that most people would rather choose, quite happily, to stay dumb and contented their entire lives?
The reality is that freedom is hard. It is work. It requires sacrifice, and very often pain, in order to thrive. And we as a species have evolved through that last n-million years to view pain as a Very Bad Thing that needs to be avoided. Is it any surprise at all, then, that if you give the average person a choice between a life of blissfully contented stupidity and then proceed to rob and rape him blind in return, or a life of hardship and toil in which he is master of his own destiny and answerable to none but the Almighty, said average person will almost always choose the former?
The upsides of freedom are tremendous, which is why you’ll still find people willing to pay the price to be free. But make no mistake- just like rights come with responsibilities attached, you can’t have freedom for free. You have to earn it. And if you’re not prepared to earn it, then don’t bitch when you realize, belatedly, that you don’t have it
Project Starve the Beast
Starving the beast is not as simplistic as “voting with your dollars” to create change. It is not calling your representative complaining for change. It is not voting once every four years wishing for change. Starving the Beast is aligning your own personal beliefs with necessary action. Looking at the prospect of discomfort and embracing it, despite the intentional challenge. Hard work has taken on a different meaning in the last decades. It has been manipulated to mean “Physically working hard for profit”. That is not hard work. At best, that is the minimum requirement of functioning in society. You are still relying on someone enduring the hard work of establishing where you contribute “hard work”. You are latching on to someone who came before you who laid the foundation of innovation through pain, sacrifice, education, investment, and opportunity; instead of seeking your own.
We the people, like to believe, we just inherit a working system. That we just get to continue the joyride and talk a big game. That is the worst assumption that is leading us astray. Yes, we inherit the foundation of our Founding Fathers. Yes, we are handed down the teachings of pain from our Veterans. Yes, we are given the means to be educated, written down by thinkers that came before us. Yes, we pass on the remaining wealth of our family, as a platform, to acquire our own livelihood. The present is handed to us, not the future. The idea of being owed the future you want, regardless of age or status, is entitlement.
So, how do you starve the beast? How do you embrace pain? How do you embody your power as the individual? How do we collectively become “We the People” once again? How do we align our personal beliefs with action?
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