April 08, 2012

Liberty: First Give It Before You Can Get It

(Official Movie) THRIVE: What On Earth Will It Take?

“A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you”
― Ramsey Clark

"The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety."
-H. L. Mencken

Where do human rights come from - are they a gift from a benevolent ruler which can be taken away as found necessary or the birthright with which every single human being is endowed by our Creator? Most people have been conditioned to believe that rights are granted by a State or by a constitution. In reality though, Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers correctly identified the source of what may be termed our natural rights - when within the Declaration of Independence they described it as a self-evident truth that "all men are ...endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...". Such natural rights may not be abrogated by an earthly power - this is morally equivalent to stealing any other possession you do not willingly part with - no matter the intentions expressed by the thief!

It is a sad reality that most humans, once given the choice between freedom and security will choose the latter without even giving it a second thought. Once given freely (that is, without coercive force) that is as much their right as it was that of the biblical Esau, who traded his precious birthright for a bowl of soup and is equally enforceable! However just as our natural rights are individually bestowed (as was that of Esau) by a loving Creator, so too they cannot be abrogated by any collective grouping, such as through any majority decision! This is why, for example, an individual may choose to take up residence on a housing compound, which provides for decisions to be made by a representative body (such as a condo association), aware that they must be bound by same for as long as they live there!

Given the choice, many (though not all) individuals may opt to live under these restricted conditions! But - exercising individual choice in this manner bears no comparison to forcible removal of free will by sheer might of the ruling power - whether a 'strongman' dictator or simple 'mob' (democracy) rule! Therefore, the only legitimate exercise of governmental power is to ensure that individual rights are upheld, as opposed to the fanciful notion that any group can decide on what's best for the collective!

The continued failure of much of humanity to respect the right of fellow humans to take actions they may consider either offensive or not in line with their own moral code has led to misguided attempts at controlling the behavior of others using force, thereby abrogating their (God-given) natural rights! Ironically, this compulsion to deny others their birthright of free will has resulted in a situation where they have enslaved themselves under the rule of tyrannical rulers and are unable to find the way out!

One far wiser than I left us this philosophy: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you..."! Back then - as now - they largely ignored this sage advice, even as they pushed for the overthrow of the ruling power - Rome, leading Him to admonish them that "the kingdom of God is in your heart.". Most of those who today claim to be followers again make the mistake of trying to co-opt the earthly political structure in order to establish through force what He taught can only be done by persuasion!

This is not unique to His (so-called) followers, as religions worldwide have continued to seek control over their earthly rulers, attempting to enforce their own brand of ethics or morality on the masses! Such a wrongheaded approach has been the cause of much death and destruction throughout history. Yet - salvation requires more than robotically following edicts and must involve exercise of free will! Be warned - we live during a time when "the Wild Beast will tire of, turn on and destroy the Harlot"!

The simple - quite obvious - truth is that freedom can only be achieved by first granting it to others! (Sounds just like the Golden Rule, doesn't it?) The only way to ensure that you can practice your own beliefs free from interference is to first see that you do not seek to impose such beliefs upon others!

The blind urge to control our fellow man through force, has resulted in a monster of our own making! This manmade monster (the biblical Wild Beast) can't be controlled and will only lose its power when mankind renounces the misguided notion that it can remain free, even as it chains up its fellow man!

As in previous end-times, the majority will carry on just as before "eating, drinking, and marrying."! And as Mencken highlighted in his insightful quote they will seek out what they have been (falsely) conditioned to believe is safety, but they will find none. Safety will not be found in the usual places!


Philosophy Of Liberty



The philosophy of freedom: Much more than demanding government get out of our lives, you must first get the tyranny out of your own heart


Thursday, April 05, 2012
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)

(NaturalNews) Do you agree with this statement? Government has no business telling us what to drink, what to eat, what kind of medicine we should take, what to smoke, what to farm, or how to run our private lives.

These are all elements of individual liberty or what you might call personal freedom. They are all part of the bigger push to get Big Government off our backs and out of our lives. But do the people who call for individual liberty really believe in it themselves? Or are they carrying around a sharp contradiction in their own beliefs?

Consider the following statements:

If people want to ride a motorcycle (or a bicycle) without a helmet, that's their own business.

If parents want to avoid having their children vaccinated, that's their own business.

If people want to smoke a doobie in their basement, that's their own business.

If a dairy farmer wants to milk a goat and sell the milk to his neighbor, that's their own business.

If people want to grow an organic garden in their front yard, that's their own business.

If someone wants to eat so much salt, sugar and aspartame that their colon falls out and they have to call an ambulance, that's their own business.

If someone wants to drive down the highway without wearing a seatbelt, that's their own business! (But no one else should be liable for their injuries if there is an accident, right?)

If a group of young girls wants to sell cookies or lemonade on the sidewalk, let 'em do it. It's their own business!

If a West Virginia farmer wants to grow a hundred acres of hemp weed and use it to make hemp seeds, hemp oils and hemp clothing, that's his own business!

If a citizen bystander wants to video record the police making a traffic stop, and it's all taking place on public property, then that's his own business! (Hey, the cops say they can record US all the time, right? That we have no presumed right to privacy on public property...)

If a guy wants to buy a ranch rifle and shoot empty soda cans on his farm in Massachusetts, that's his own business!

Are you carrying a freedom contradiction?

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