It’s Independence Day in America—that day where we fly our flags, picnic with our loved ones, marvel at fireworks, and celebrate our freedom. But do we really have anything to celebrate? Let’s find out.
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| Dees Illustration |
Milo Nickels
Activist Post
The Merriam-Webster dictionary online defines independence as:
the quality or state of being independent
This definition isn’t all that helpful without defining the word independent. Once again we return to the Merriam-Webster dictionary online and find these definitions for the word independent:
a. “not subject to control by others”
b. 2) “not looking to others for one’s opinions or for guidance in conduct”
c. “not requiring or relying on others”
Therefore, a complete definition of the word independence would be:
the quality or state of not being subject to the control of others, not looking to others for guidance in conduct, and not relying on others.
Now ask yourself, according to this definition, are you independent?
Anyone who answers that question affirmatively is either delusional, dishonest, or reading this article from the safety of a padded room in their local mental institution. Of course you’re not independent!
Can you really say you are “not subject to control by others”? Try driving down the street without having to obey countless traffic laws. Try filming a cop as he beats up a fellow “free” citizen. Try flying to your family’s fourth of July picnic without having your genitals groped by the TSA.
Everything you do is regulated, everything you say is monitored and censored, and every transaction you make is taxed. Even the “free” choices you make are restricted and controlled by the government. When you choose between a limited set of options, you don’t actually make a real choice at all. Make no mistake: you are under complete control.
Although you may not be “looking to others for…opinions or for guidance” from the government, the government will relentlessly bombard you with their unsolicited opinions—constantly letting you know what is best for you. And, even worse, they don’t just offer their opinions, they force you to adhere to them through laws, violence, coercion, and taxation. The government seeks to control your opinions about every topic the same way a rapist seeks to control your opinions about who you should have sex with. They hold a gun to your head and say, “you know you want it.”
Do you require or rely on others? Hopefully not. Of the three components ofindependence, this one is the most vital. If you don’t rely on the government, then they lose most of their power to control your actions or guide your opinions. This is precisely why the government perpetually seeks ways of making us rely on them. By removing our ability to take responsibility for our own actions and be held accountable for the results, they gain control. This is also why, every time the government “helps” us acquire a service, the cost of that service goes through the roof—that way, it makes others have to turn to the government for that same service.
We’ve reached a point where people can’t even imagine privately funding education, saving for their own retirements, paying their own doctors, or deciding what to put into their own bodies—a point where people expect the government to censor the TV so they don’t have to take responsibility for what they watch, where people expect the government to outlaw drugs and prostitution so they don’t have to take responsibility for their own poor decisions, and where people expect the government to ban everything that they don’t personally agree with (denying others the opportunity to make their own decisions).
Of the three components of independence, this is the one we can use to take the power back, by simply taking responsibility of our own lives. Sadly, however, taking responsibility is a lot more work than sitting idly by and letting the government run your life for you, and most people are content to do just that. Like dogs on leashes, they forget about the leash as long as they get an easy meal once in a while.
Please wake up to this fact: we are not free and we do not have independence. We have drones in our skies, troops on our streets, the TSA in our pants, the IRS in our wallets, the police in our faces, and the NSA in our business.
On this 4th of July, instead of blindly celebrating false independence, let’s try to remember how we gained real independence in the first place. It didn’t come easy, but nothing worth having ever does. I hope that each and every person that reads this will privately issue their own Declaration of Independence—make a personal vow to live freely, take responsibility, let other’s live their own lives as they see fit, speak out against tyranny, and refuse to blindly follow the masses.
In living this way, we will hopefully make large strides back toward independence, and once again have a reason to celebrate in the future. As for this year, however, let’s remember the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Milo Nickels began blogging and cartooning about politics in the year 2000. After achieving some notoriety at that time, Milo took a break. Now, Milo has launched a new website, Five Cent Revolution where he continues to write about political issues. In particular, Milo focuses on constitutionalism, critiques of modern liberalism and progressivism, and defends individual liberty above all else. Milo wants the government out of our wallets, out of our business, and out of our lives to the greatest extent possible.
Read other articles by Milo Nickels HERE
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