Politeia: The Brutal History of Rights

It cannot be reiterated and emphasized often enough what precisely is the nature and origin of the basic rights that many of us enjoy to this day! Few today appreciate their value and at what price they've come!

Sadly, over the last decades younger generations have been willfully indoctrinated with over abstracted and perverted versions of the basic concepts of liberty and individual rights. Some Americans hope themselves to be united in these values, but they should know these are emphatically not shared by those on the far Left side of the aisle.

- Caption: logo of the 912 Project based on "Don't Tread On Me" -

The purpose of postmodern 'interpretations' - usually a series of subtle shifts in definition until a word begins to mean its opposite - have always been entirely clear: to subordinate individuals once more to the collective and to the tyrants who take it upon themselves to realize their ideals - without fail in the name of a 'higher morality', the greater good, an illusionary common will, or whatever false ideal is brought to bear as a sad excuse on the road to hell.

Europeans have become so used to the reality of "third way" politics and mixed economies, that they firmly believe them to represent a fair balance between cut-throat Capitalism and benign collectivism. But sadly, what is experienced as a compromise is merely a brief stage in the transition process from less freedom to total tyranny.

Progress is not a timeline, but comes in loops, in cycles. Read all about it in a series of posts contributed to this blog some time ago by an author who is currently entrusting to paper his memoirs of the Korean War and must therefore be temporarily missed. Read "Understanding Change" by Dr Sam Holliday of the Armiger Cromwell Center.

Growth is the natural order of things. Survival depends on it. The same is true of corporations and governments. What starts out as an entity to protect the people's liberty - with no authority greater than the sum of rights held by the people they represent - if unchecked, the entity inevitably morphs into an autocratic Leviathan that dictates shopping hours at best and the content of our minds at worst.

One has to admire the wisdom and sense of realism held by America's founders; for instance Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that "the people cannot be all, and always, well informed", a prerequisite for democracy, which is not an end in itself by the way, but one possible aid in the protection of individual rights. He also asserted that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." (full quote)

Most may not realise it yet, but the gaping chasm between the understanding of those basic principles and the current postmodern interpretation of what constitutes freedom and government, has brought Western civilization to the brink of collapse.

Here's another great essay by Dr Sam Holliday, this time about the ominous parallels between our present time and the German interbellum, better known as the Weimar Republic: "Red Flags".

As the devastating results of the "Community Reinvestment Act" are suppressed, thanks to the spin that the current financial and economic crisis was only to be expected since 'greed' is inherent in the Capitalist system, some are already tentatively suggesting that the same dilemma is true as was pondered between the two world wars: namely that Capitalism has sadly failed us and that the only recourse is a collectivist system.

Back then the false choice was between Communism and Fascism: Left or Right collectivism. Things are not all that outspoken this time around: no right-minded politician or spin doctor would call these ideologies by their proper names.

Instead, while the global Obama honeymoon drags on and the pillars of the economy remain frozen like mesmerized deer in the headlights, a public discourse on such subjects fails to materialize and the financial crisis - too good an opportunity to pass up - is used as a leverage to implement the measures necessary for the establishment of a crypto collective.

The only question is in fact what its degree of malignancy will be?

Here's a reminder of the brutal history of our rights as promised at the head of this post. And here's the entire series. Let's see how we'll get ourselves out of this crap pit. I'd say - for starters - let's shock the silent majority out of their catatonic stupor! As usual the Americans are at the vangard while the rest of us very slowly catches on (but no guarantees there).