Article: A Free Country

A Free Country
by
Rand Clifford

As soon as freedom is taken for granted, it’s ready to be taken away. Being one of civilization’s oldest lessons, why must that be relearned again and again? Many people in this country seem obliged to blithely toss off “It’s a free country” to justify something trivial and silly, but could anything be more serious than the freedom of a nation’s citizens?

Freedom is always under siege. Thomas Jefferson said, and it has echoed down the line, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. Right now in this “Land of the Free”, freedom has been slipped out from under us with presidential directives and executive orders, leaving Americans an “event” away from martial law and forced labor camps—and how many even know? (1) Knowledge in this case seems destined to come as serious accidents often do...everything seems fairly normal, then suddenly WHAM! leaves an aftermath of, “how can this be?” What happened!?”

What is happening is inevitable when “eternal vigilance” is replaced with apathy. If ignorance and fear join the “price” paid...such as what might be expected was displayed last week when President bush silver spooned baloney to our troops in Iraq via video conference:

“I must say, I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you...in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.”

Certainly, the President speaking in tongues should not surprise thoughtful Americans, a little horrified recoil has become almost a daily experience for anyone really paying attention. But this is special—the supposed leader of the world’s most dangerous nation romanticizing the mass murder of innocent human beings, in the interests of empire, by our “best and brightest” who often come home mangled in body or mind, or both, if not in a flag-draped box...romanticizing gruesome realities such as the President’s mother, Barbara, trivialized on Good Morning America with her typically empathic: “So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

Should American “fodder units” (2) feel privileged for the opportunity to kill and die for alpha-reptilian elites?

You might say we even bought and paid for Vice President Dick Cheney’s latest confirmation that he does not care what Americans think. His diplomatic, for the record, “So?” actually, elegantly sums up the Controlling Power Configuration’s (CPC) sentiment regarding the vote of the American people. Good thing it’s so easy for the CPC to tally the vote however they choose; otherwise, enormous resources might be wasted, such as in the status quo sideshow called the “Presidential Race”. There will be no realistic candidate for President that is not cleared by the CPC, period. And, in this cycle for instance, it makes no significant difference whether the CPC finally chooses Obama, Clinton or McCain, we will see further rape of our Constitution, further decay of our country, further imperialistic mass murder....

One way to quantify our descent is by noting how crucially germane certain classic quotes involving liberty and government have become.

“Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we’ve got to keep generating it or the lights go out.” – Wayne LaPierre

For people who understand the function of mainstream corporate media (CorpoMedia) as the propaganda arm of corporate-controlled government (CorpoGov), darkness in America, and darkness America exports around the world is no surprise.

“Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” – Frederick Douglass

9-11 vastly expanded what Americans will submit to, as have CorpoMedia’s relentless propagation of ignorance and fear. People who get all their “news” from television, newspapers and radio might know a lot about sensational trivia, celebrities and corporate sports, (phony) wars and (phony) elections, but when it comes to what is really going on in the world, such people reinforce the global perspective of Americans being the most misinformed people on the planet. The Internet has become absolutely essential, but involving so much freedom makes it absolutely endangered.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)

We have allowed the methodical stripping of our insulation against tyranny, only to be learning, again, another ancient lesson in governance: When tyranny descends like freezing fog of anti-life, options get frozen. With voting reduced to cold shadows, we as a people now enjoy the freedom of virtually no voice in the direction of our country.

“In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all—security, comfort, and freedom. When...the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens (America?) ceased to be free.” – Sir Edward Gibbon

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