Then they said to Moses:
“Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."
— Exodus 14:11-12
The majority of the American people are today no different from the Israelites of old. Most don't even realize it. Some sense that something is wrong but aren't sure what it is. "Like a splinter in your mind," as the SciFi movie The Matrix, posited.
For most of American history, the average person, farmer, shop owner or entrepreneur, could live an entire life without getting anything from the federal government except mail service. But those days have gone the way of the Pony Express.
Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that 49% of the population lives in a household where at least one person gets some type of government benefit.
These people aren’t necessarily dependent on government; many could live (even live well) without their subsidies. That’s not the point. The problem is that the corporation we know as Washington D.C., has been busy building a culture of dependency, with ever-more people relying on an ever-growing federal government to give them cash or benefits.
The truth is that, freedom and liberty in the modern world, is an illusion. An abstract concept. The suppression of human liberty has always been created upon or out of distorted reality.
All political systems are built upon control. Government can only exercise it’s authority at the cost of your liberty. And government can only maintain itself by taking your money. Doesn’t get any more complicated than that.
Politicians and bureaucrats never remotely consider personal or individual liberty. On the contrary, government under any name or label, is all about making and passing laws for the masses. Much of which, never applies to them. And where there are many laws, there is no individual freedom. Where there is no individual freedom, there is no freedom at all. Only the illusion of freedom.
As for people, there are only two dominant influences or authorities in their lives. One is external, such as a perceived authority. The other is internal, or our personal code of conduct, which is based upon our character traits, upbringing, pre-conceived biases, and experiences.
However, It is our reliance upon a perceived external authority, that has led us into the Socialism we see in our country today, which has turned the American dream into the incremental American nightmare. Our dependence on the external authority of government and politicians, is a guaranteed program for ruin.
Unfortunately, too many rely on an external authority to feels safe. Too many have relied for generations, on government for subsidies and welfare programs to live. Mere handouts, that keeps them docile and in poverty and a reliable voting block.
The reality is that governments need to persuade you to share what you have earned by your creativity and labor, with non-producers but first and foremost, with government itself, which is a consumer not a producer. And as such, government exists only to propagate and perpetuate itself at the expense of your freedom, labor and wealth.
Voltaire once said, "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Why? Because liberty is a frightening concept to people who have only known bondage, that is to say, dependence on an external authority for their very existence. To them, this is freedom and democracy."
But freedom and happiness are only restored through self-reliance and acting on our own judgment. Self-sufficiency and self-worth produce ultimate happiness and human liberty. But for many people, this concept is terrifying. Why? Because it separates them from their benefactor.
I will conclude with what Gaye Levy once wrote:
“Be prepared for Big Brother the likes of which, we have not seen in our lifetime."