by Kerry Thomas
April 27, 2005
It is said that there are
none so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. We Americans believe we are the freest
people on Earth. We have built shrines
to our Freedom, encased our founding documents in glass display cases for all
to see, and celebrate freedom at every opportunity. We ask our military to spread freedom throughout the world, using
our military might to liberate enslaved nations from tyrannical
dictatorships.
But just how free are
Americans? Are we really free, or are
we an enslaved people, living in a society that operates under the principles
of communism?
When America was founded,
our forefathers left behind nations where the populations had been in bondage
to a tyrannical government. When the
taxes and regulations upon the new colonies here became as oppressive as they
had been back where they had come from, we revolted. We threw off the bonds of enslavement, determined that such
governance would not suit this new land.
Out forefathers set up a new system of governing this new nation, a
system which placed strong responsibilities upon its citizens, to govern
ourselves as free men.
While America grew as a free
nation, elsewhere in the world there were movements in the other
direction. In 1848 Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels published their Communist Manifesto, which detailed the ten
steps necessary to destroy a free enterprise system and replace it with a
system of omnipotent government power, so as to affect a communist socialist
state.
Marx espoused
the abolition of private property and
the application of all rents of land to public purposes. Do you own your own property, or do you pay
a tax on it to a government agency every year?
Are those taxes then used for “the common good” to fund government-run
school systems, bureaucratic government agencies, and other government
activities? Do zoning laws limit what
you can use your own property for?
Marx called for a heavy progressive or graduated income tax. How much of what you earn is taken from your
paycheck before you even get a chance to see it? We have a system of taxation on our incomes that no one
understands, yet everyone continues to pay, under penalty of fine or
imprisonment. The federal government
taxes away 10%-35% of your income every year.
Add to that various state and local income taxes and in some places the
tax burden exceeds 50%. Half of
everything you earn is taxed away.
Marx’s Manifesto also called for the abolition of all rights of
inheritance. Ever heard of the estate
tax? Congress keeps saying it’s working
to repeal it, but it’s still there.
After working all your life, paying half of everything you earn to the
government, when you die they then come in and confiscate 55% of everything you
have left.
The confiscation of all property of emigrants and rebels is the next
plank in Marx’s writings. But that
doesn’t happen in America, does it?
What about the asset forfeiture laws passed during the War on
Drugs? Did you know that under those
statutes if anyone is found in possession of drugs on your property, your
property can be seized without any trial?
If you want a trial, the burden of proof is on you to prove your
innocence in the case. Plus, you will
have to put up a bond equal to the full value of the seized property before you
can even request a trail.
What about tax liens, where the same basic rules as in the drug
forfeiture cases applies? The IRS makes
its rules so complicated most people simply give up their property without a
fight, because no one understands the IRS’s regulations. And do you recall the language in the
Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the terrorist attacks in 2001? Under that Act, anyone labeled a “terrorist”
loses many of their rights of due process.
And there are no guidelines for just who can be labeled a
terrorist. In the hands of a corrupt
administration, anyone who speaks out against the administration could be
labeled as a terrorist, imprisoned, and left to rot without a trial for many
years.
Marx called for the
centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank
with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Take a look at a dollar bill.
Notice where it says it’s a Federal Reserve Note? The
Federal Reserve is a privately owned
credit/debt system allowed by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. All local banks are members of that system,
and are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) another privately owned corporation. Now,
do you remember where the Constitution says about gold and silver as the only
means of Tender allowed?
Next comes centralization of the means of
communications and transportation in the hands of the State. Ever heard of the Federal Communications Commission and the
Department of Transportation? How about
the Interstate Commerce Commission? The
Federal Aviation Administration? Do you
have a state-issued driver’s license?
And does your favorite radio or television station hold a state-required
broadcast license? While the internet
has done a lot to free up means of communication, most people still access it
through a telephone line, which is still regulated by the government. And the next time you fill up, try to find
out just how much of that pump price is actually state and federal tax on that
gasoline.
Marx called for the extension of factories and for the instruments of production to be owned by the state, as well as the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the
improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. Has your community been subject to any sort
of master land use plan yet? What about
this thing called “Smart Growth?” Do
you have to comply with any regulations from the Federal Environmental Protection
Agency? And what about the Department
of the Interior? Just how well do federal and state governments manage the
lands they do own?
Next comes what Marx called the equal liability of all to
labor. What this means is that we
all get paid an equal paycheck, regardless of how well or poorly we work. Ever heard of a union? Ever work in a union? You might have noticed the more productive
employees got no more pay than the slackers.
On a government level, think of the minimum wage. The government mandates a wage floor for
all, regardless of talent or experience.
Has America seen the combination of agriculture with manufacturing
industries, and a gradual elimination of the distinction between town and country? How about a more
equitable distribution of population over the country? Plank #9 in Marx’s plan.
The last Plank in Marx’s Manifesto called for free education
for all children in public schools as well as the combination of education with industrial production. Do you know today’s American free public
education system is modeled after the Prussian army training model developed in
the 19th century? It is
designed to produce soldiers/employees who will follow orders, and not question
authority. Remember, when you were
growing up in this system, how you were taught to respect authority figures,
and not to question their judgment? The
doctors, teachers, lawyers, policemen, and other professionals are supposed to
know more than the rest of us, right?
Especially the omnipotent politicians, who know more than all of us.
For
generations now, Americans have been indoctrinated in these institutions of
educational propaganda. We’ve been
conditioned to follow orders, go with the flow, and follow the crowd rather
than be our own leaders. We’ve been
taught to pay our “fair share” of some imagined debt to society, to “the common
good.” The philosophical concept of
“fair share” is derived from the communist maxim of “from each according to his
means, to each according to his needs.”
Are these the teachings of freedom-loving men, or the teachings of those
who would enslave us?
We’ve
all heard the proverb where you “give a man a fish and you feed him for a
day.” Isn’t it a more just ethos to
“teach a man to fish” thus feeding him for a lifetime? Voluntarily teaching others to fish for
themselves has been the hallmark of American generosity from the
beginning. A free market capitalist
economic system has enabled America to exceed out Founders’ fondest dreams for
a free society. Is that system still in
effect, or have we slowly become the practitioners of the principles of
communism?
America is the one country
where the People have the power to change their government by peaceful
means. Those who espouse changing the current
government system come before us every couple of years, and lay their plans on
the table. Some of these plans are
accepted, some are rejected. But we
must be ever vigilant against those who would seek to enshrine further the
teachings of Marx and Engels.
Benjamin Franklin said that
any society that would give up a
little liberty to gain a little security would deserve neither and lose
both. Do changing words change the
concepts? Are we safer if we are
enslaved, or is our security based upon our freedom? Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.
© 2005 Kerry Thomas
All Rights reserved