It's In These Battles

The pandemic is an example of the degree to which Americans have allowed themselves to be conditioned toward obedience. It’s hard to see backward through the mists of time, but prior to the 1970’s and Nixon’s institution of the administrative state in order to deal with pollution, which was a serious concern, he instituted big-government departments and agencies to deal with the power of huge corporations. By doing so, he effectively turned the tables on the American people. The phrase, “you can’t do that on your property” began to get used more and more often. Before that no one questioned what one did with their property, it was theirs, but seeing what horrors the private sector could do on their property that affected everyone else downstream or downwind, forced a change in the average American mind.

This is where the polluters violated one of the principles of freedom. The old axiom that liberty is the ability to swing one’s fist is unlimited as long as it doesn’t affect another’s nose. Regardless, it was an excuse; the old Alinsky practice of never letting a crisis go to waste, in other words, use any and all real crises, like burning rivers, to push a Marxist agenda of state control.

We’ve gone all the way to the other extreme, where government bureaucrats are emboldened to rip your private property from your hands as long as they have any excuse of whatever merit, most often of no merit at all. Sometimes, it’s a personal vendetta.

The great pandemic, that opened so many doors for so many bureaucrats to influence and even direct law enforcement to arrest those unwilling to comply with their (what comes down to health advice) rashly imposed regulations, for which they had no power whatsoever, except brute force, is now largely seen for what it was, the flu, or a new strain of it, even if concocted in a Chinese or American lab.

Climate change, a wholly invented crisis for the purpose of imposing Marxist principles of state power over private enterprise, has totally disrupted the economy, thrown millions into risk of starvation or deprivation of heat or cooling, and yet, there is no accounting for cost-to-benefit of these policies.

What the communists understand, that almost no free-market capitalist does, is that minor changes in political attitude from generation to generation have long-term effects that will be adaptable to any number of other opportunities to gain power. How agreeing that pollution is a problem, a visible, actual problem, can be leveraged to the point that we can be convinced that there is some invisible force altering our climate to a devastating degree, even though these alterations cannot be measured or even verified. They just must be believed and anyone who doesn’t is un-American.

The solution, and something I know I harp on often, is personal attitudes. It’s why I wrote 9 Principles of Freedom, recently reviewed favorably by the great Jack Lawson, who’s created a manual for self-survival that no one should be without in these times, the Civil Defense Manual. I know this sounds like a commercial, but it’s not. These are books written knowing they will contribute almost nothing to our bottom lines. They are, to a great degree, commercial failures (maybe not to Jack, who certainly deserves it), but they weren’t written to be commercial successes, they were written to try to help people survive, or in my case, our society, the one that built a great nation, to survive. That might sound grandiose, but it’s a drop in the bucket, a tear in a sea and I knew it would be nothing more than a scream in the dark woods, but both of us had to TRY.

The message of 9 Principles of Freedom, is to stop thinking of oneself as a victim, without the power to change one’s condition. It’s all in attitude; the same way attitude of the bureaucrats brought us global warming and the pandemic. It’s questioning authority now more than ever. We are the authority, when we take that role seriously.

Recently, where I work, because nothing I’ve written has ever been a commercial success and I like work, I ran into a Covid questionnaire at a customer’s business that I recognized as corporate required nonsense and for a while, not wanting to intervene in the relationship between these businesses, just sort of filled it out without divulging any information to which they had no right to obtain, basically, no, no, no, no, to get on with work. Sometimes I just wouldn’t, but every time I did, it grated on me. I resented it and finally, with a representative of that business standing there, expecting it to be filled out, having noticed that unless someone was there, I wouldn’t, I told him I resented it and he told me to leave. I expected to get fired over it. It was a big customer, a large part of our company’s income was derived from that source. I was grilled on why I didn’t just shut my mouth, fill it out and get on with work. My explanation was that I just couldn’t, it was wrong and if they had to fire me, then to get on with it.

Later, having kept my job, I was sent back. I refused, admitting that I hadn’t changed my mind and wouldn’t and sending me back there was just going to start it all up again. They did a work-around so I didn’t have to, but later still, they sent me to another facility for the same company. Braced for the clash, I entered and was quickly informed that those performing my task only had to sign one sheet and that was all job-related safety information, JSA to those who do them regularly. (don’t get me started on that)

None of us want to lose our jobs over this stupid, inane bs, but we have to be willing to risk it. This is how our successful society has been destroyed to replace it with the irrational, illogical commands of some quasi-authority, by failing to take these risks. Others have, the military washed a bunch of them out over it.

Now that it’s been revealed how deep the rot is, how it’s creeped into every corner of our world, it’s time to start being much more aggressive in defending one’s own rights. Question your doctor to find out how much of the pandemic he actually believes in; ask how much money he’s received from Pfizer or others. These are legitimate questions from someone asked to place their lives, literally, in another’s hands. Take the same aggressive belligerence they demonstrate into these interactions. If we want a free nation where individuals have rights, it’s obvious that we’re going to have to fight for them.

As emotionally and mentally draining as confrontations can be, I understand that few will want to take this advice, but it’s the only way. Maybe not every instance all at the same time, but something, somewhere. I’ve been lucky, I haven’t had to go through any of this before, because if they demanded I wear a mask, I refused to go there. If they got in my face over it, like they did at the post office one time, I got back in theirs citing that they were just following “advice” and that there was no law that required it. They promptly lost the package I mailed, the only one they’d ever lost. Forcing them to resort to that cowardice, that inability to do their job with integrity, was enough for me. Plus, we moved.

It’s in these battles that we must fight, until the great volcano, that’s currently building across the globe, erupts. When it finally does, all of this will be inconsequential, mere survival will be on everyone’s mind. One highly-connected and brilliant commenter recently remarked, “we will be counting our wealth, not in dollars, but ounces.”