Are we free?

by Victor Morales

We, in these United States, are taught from an early age that we are free; that we live in a country that encourages and celebrates our God-given natural rights; that the blessings of liberty, secured by the American Revolution, have been passed on to us through the posterity of the revolutionaries of 1776. Perhaps this was so at some point in these United States’ early history, however the progression of events over the past 100+ years create a strong narrative against this. I would argue that, far from being free, we citizens are in fact living in a form of slavery, mere servants to the too-numerous bureaucracies, organs of the State, and most certainly to a distant Potentate.

Think not? Consider then, the following select points of a myriad of possible examples:

First, as a free individual and master of your self, should you not have first claim to the fruits of your labor? Any claim otherwise, that supersedes that of the individual, by default posits that some other entity is your master. By another name, that relationship is one of servant-slave and master. Income taxation is the foremost example of this relationship. Regardless if you are an entrepreneur, or choose to work for wages, the above mentioned entities lay first claim to the fruits of your labor. Protest, or refuse to pay, and you will be harried, pursued, and caged. Might I add that the historical rallying cry of “no taxation without representation” is now a canard and long dead...or do you believe that you are represented somewhere within the 74,000+ pages of the federal tax code?

Second, as a free individual and master of your self, should you not have the right to freely associate, or do business, with whomever you so choose? Or conversely, should you be compelled to associate, or do business, with those you wish to have no discourse or commerce? This axiomatic natural right, however, has been turned on its head and ground into an ignominious pulp over the past 50 years. Laws and rulings, in the name of lofty ideals such as ‘diversity’ and, ‘gender/sexual/racial/identity/socio-political equality’, have resulted in nothing less than the rending of the social fabric of a society, previously based on the primacy and sanctity of individual voluntary associations. Government is not, nor ever has rightfully been, vested with the legal or moral authority to regulate free individuals’ voluntary social interactions. At least not in a free society.

Third, as a free individual and master of your self, should you not be vested with the God-given natural rights to your life, liberty, and happiness (property) and the right to protect/defend the aforesaid? The Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the Bill of Rights both asserted such a right. And yet, the bureaucracies, organs of the State, and the Potentate all continue with much concerted effort to eviscerate those rights, and more specifically the individual’s ability to defend those rights. The Second Amendment does not grant the individual the right to bear arms but rather guarantees and implicitly recognizes the right to bear arms as the God-given right of free individuals to safeguard their life, liberty, and happiness (property) from all threats, up to and including a despotic State. Thusly, any attempt to deprive the free individual of the right to bear arms is an explicit assault on the individual’s natural rights. In the name of security, it is argued, that the individual must give up his freedoms/rights. To live under that rubric, is to live in a prison or on a plantation...and as that comes to pass, day-by-day we are less the free individuals, and more the servant-slaves to our State masters.

As mentioned earlier, the above observations are but a small sampling of any number of clear examples of our neo-servitude. To paraphrase Samuel Adams, these chains may rest lightly, but chains they are nevertheless. Free individual or servant-slave, the choice is ours first, to recognize and, second, to change...

I chose this observation, to open a discourse amongst the readers of this paper and the citizens of the greater Big Horn Basin. I look forward to a lively resultant commentary in agreement or not. Regardless, discussion is the first step.