Enough doomscrolling. What is the hope for the future? Is the American Dream dead? Where can we go from here? The key may be in the silent majority no longer standing by in silence.
Welcome Freedom Troopers, I appreciate you all because you have inquiring minds and don’t blindly accept what the media moguls choose to tell you. Unfortunately, there are some who seem to not think beyond the news blurbs they hear. You are not among them. We have spent a lot of time talking about what is wrong but we all must remember the reason to talk about what is wrong in the West today is because there is still hope to make it better. As long as your heart beats to the dream of Freedom and Liberty the American Dream is not dead. Woe to those who think the American Dream is about having a house, spouse, 2.3 kids, and cars. That is a consumers dream but it was never the American Dream. The American Dream is about freedom, liberty, and being able to chart your own course, sleep with your own love, and become the person that only you can be. That spark of life that is you has a destiny and that destiny can be best reached in a country that embraces freedom and self-determination. As summarized below:
The socialist ideal may be everyone working together, as assigned, for the communal good but history has shown that when a central planning commission says, “You will be the street sweeper, you will clean the toilets, and you will work in an office building…” et cetera it crushes innovation and creativity. That is why socialism stifles and crushes the hopes of every society it has crippled. No one can identify your dreams better than you. No one can choose your path better than you. Society works best if it facilitates your own liberty to become the person you were destined to be and then to reach your full potential.
Marx and his followers believed that your individual hopes and dreams were not only unimportant but non-existent. He believed that everything you want and everything you believe comes from the power structure that you belong to. That is why Leftists are never interested in debate. They believe you are just going to blindly mouth the sentiments of the power structure that you represent. There are no individuals everything is about power – the power of one group against another. For this reason the individual has to be absorbed into the group so that the group can have its maximum power base in its battle against other power centers.
Be all that you can be! You do that not by blindly following someone else’s vision for your life but by figuring out what makes your own heart sing and then embracing it, moving forward to reach a potential for your life that only you can fully see in a life that you need maximum freedom to search out.
We don’t reach our full potential as a society or as individuals by losing our identity in a mass of people who are nothing but numbers. And it doesn’t matter if you are a number in some great Socialist or Communist machine or if you are a faceless number in the massive corporation of some robber baron or bankster that has never known you nor do they care to. We reach our full potential when we chart our own course, learn to face and overcome our own challenges, and establish ourselves in the community of equals as an adult and leader of a family.
Capitalism is not the sin that is stifling our society it is leftist propaganda/cultic acts, amorality, and the cowardice of our leaders from forcing massive companies and concerns back into a “free enterprise” competitive market economy. Laissez Faire Capitalism cannot work forever. Like any power structure the economic power structure will result in ruthless actors gaining dominance. An economic tyranny forms when certain companies gain the upper hand and have the power to crush all competitors and maintain a monopoly that prevents market forces and competition from working as capitalism expects them to. Eventually the most ruthless and effective operator will out, not necessarily the best products which will give people the safest and healthiest products but the most ruthless and cutthroat.
That is when things start going bad. Once a company has crushed its competitors and created a monopoly it no longer has competition. It no longer needs to strive for excellence because it doesn’t have to outdo or compete with anyone. Further, they can “work” with government to create regulation to “protect” consumers in such a way that new entrepreneurs have no chance of meeting all of the bureaucratic red tape and regulation they must face to even start a competing business. Most government interference in the market works against entrepeneurs and consumers except the one thing that our congress refuses to do these days which is “trust busting.” Monopolies used to be called trusts.
When I was young “Ma Bell” (common name for Bell Telephone Company,) had gained control of all phone service in the United States. Phone technology stopped advancing and Bell Telephone could charge anything they wanted for service and people had no choice. Congress acted and broke the monopoly of the phone company and broke it into five different companies that then competed with each other for market share. Suddenly, telephone technology and innovations in service appeared in the market once more as one company tried to outdo another.
Today there are several monster companies in the US that have such control and monopolies that they no longer have competition. Sometimes it appears, they own enough Senators and Congressmen (through donations and support,) that no one dares move against them.
Any potential competitor that raises their head they can buy out of existence or crush with a financial bludgeon or engage in lawfare and try to impoverish them with lawsuits. This is not what capitalism and free enterprise is about. There is no free enterprise or competition when one megacompany is crushing all competition and preventing the market from operating through its monopoly. That is amoral capitalism. It is amoral to crush opposition just because you fear competition. Surely, if you don’t fear competition than you would let it grow and see where it went realizing that when you have a competitor you yourself are moved to even more excellence. But that might endanger your comfort sitting back and resting on your laurels…now that everyone knows the quality products that helped you grow have now been given over to cheap and empty products that no longer meet demand and no longer offer consumers choice. Amoral capitalist, robber barons if you will, are not interested in free enterprise or competition with the best product winning. Rather, these amoral capitalist robber barons are only interested in money and power and the power brought by more money. This is not free enterprise but a feudalistic economic tyranny of robber baron against robber baron.
Just as government is intended to protect our civil rights, they must protect our economic rights by ensuring market competition functions as it is supposed to – government should not stifle competition but support market freedom as it does our political liberties. Not as socialism does but to preserve economic freedom and free enterprise and competition. This is further complicated when Communist companies unfairly back their government owned and directed businesses to drive Western companies and industries out of business. Government is responsible for defending us against both encroachments on our rights and the free market.
America today faces an economic tyranny that is as stifling as any other. Tyranny, be it political or economic crushes the will to strive for excellence that burns within us. We all have a desire for…something. There is a desire that God placed in our hearts and a place for us in society and the world. The Bible says God wants to give us the deepest desires of our hearts because he is the one that placed them there. This is not a desire for a new car or riches. It is a desire for you to live a fulfilling life with the one that you love until that love grows into children and a new generation and you, your spouse, and your children, and children’s children live in freedom, harmony, and flourishing. Not protecting us from competition, challenges, and struggle, but allowing us room to find our own opportunities and overcome challenges as millions of years of evolution prepared us for. But we are the best people to judge how to develop ourselves to become this person we were meant to be. Freedom means creating an environment where the most people can strive for their dreams.
The one thing socialists get right is that we all have a responsibility not only to ourselves and our family but our society. As John F. Kennedy said ‘Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Citizen used to mean something other than someone who is born or resides in America. To be a citizen presumed a willingness to take up arms to defend your family and community, to treat your fellows fairly and honestly and to do your part for the common good.
This expectation that citizens act for the common good goes back to Rome where prominent citizens would pay for roads, buildings, or other benefits for the community they lived in. In fact, sometimes they would compete for who could do the most for their community. This was just expected of every citizen who had the means.
The heritage of the past, the grand civilizations of Greece and Rome, Europe, and America were built upon the philosophy and heritage of a rich and deep history that many want to erase today. Yet there is nothing today that could even exist if it had not been built upon the work of the thousands of generations that came before us. Science, philosophy, religion, and the tales of great men throughout history giving us the example of sacrificing themselves to secure their country and their homes.
The poem Horatius at the Bridge rings true but perhaps upon empty words today. It only took three men, Horatius and a man at his right and one at his left, who fought to keep the barbarians off the bridge as those behind him hacked at the bridge with axes to bring it down. Throughout history the example of Horatius has been passed down to us over thousands of years as he fought until the very bridge he fought on collapsed into the water and we read the words: “And how can man die better, than facing fearsome odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods.”
Horatius fought and saved Rome from attack, sacrificing himself and his strength, to save and uplift his community. And because of that, we still know his name today, thousands of years later. There are other names that we know as well. King Leonidas, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, John J. Pershing, Eisenhower and Patton. And we know Thomas Paine who left Washington’s struggling army buried in snow and hunger because he knew his pen was needed that December more than was his sword. So that he could write the words that Washington read to his army to give them hope to march onto their victory at Trenton in December of 1776:
“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain to cheap, we esteem to lightly; ‘Tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated…As I was with the troops at FORT LEE, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those, who lived at a distance, know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was exceedingly cramped, the place being on a narrow neck of land between the North River and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one fourth so great as [General] Howe could bring [his British Regular trained soldiers] against us. We had no army at hand to have relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on the defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the best part of our stores [supplies], had been removed upon the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys, in which case Fort-Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object, which such forts are raised to defend. Such was our situation and condition at Fort-Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with information that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven or eight miles above: Major General [Nathaniel] Greene, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to his Excellency General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops toward the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush [slang for a fight] for; however they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river. We brought off as much baggage [and supplies] as the waggons could contain, the rest was lost. The simple object was to bring off the garrison and to march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey or Pennsylvania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand.”
Unlike those who are ignorant of such matters and liken militias to the National Guard militias were local and companies formed separately in towns or counties. They were supposed to be made up of every able-bodied man in the community but when the bell sounded calling them out you never knew who would actually answer the call. Thomas Paine continues his account:
“We staid for days at Newark, collected in our out-posts with some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet the enemy on information of their being advancing [around us], though our numbers were greatly inferior to theirs…
“I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice if for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and a martial spirit. All their wishes were one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back. Voltaire remarked that King William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked [by great struggle], discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which we do not immediately see, that GOD hath blest him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care.
“I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin by asking the following question. Why is it that the enemy have left the New-England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy; New-England is not infested with Tories and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to shew them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world to either their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a tory? GOD! What is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred against a thousand tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every tory is a coward, for a servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave… Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard with muskets on your shoulders…it is soldiers, and not tories, that he wants…A noted one [tory], who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, …and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, “Well! Give me peace in my day.” … a generous parent would have said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day that my child may have peace;” and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty…I call not upon a few, but upon all; not THIS state or THAT state, but EVERY state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel, better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and country, alarmed at the common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it…It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; The blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them [their descendents safe and] happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as strait and clear as a ray of light. …if a thief break into my house, burn and destroy my property, and kill or threaten to kill me, or those that are in it…am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman? Whether it is done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we will find no difference…Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it; But I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man…
There are persons too who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them, they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if they succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf; and we ought to guard equally against both…[their] first object is partly by threats and partly by promise, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms, and receive mercy. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey…Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools not to see it…This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils – a ravaged country – a depopulated city – habitations without safety, and slavery without hope…” Thomas Paine, Common Sense
No, the American Dream was never about just acquiring things. It was about being able to live in Freedom and reach our full potential. Good day to your Freedom Troopers, I look forward to sharing with you again Thursday. Until then don’t let the hordes of darkness get you down…
