Last week wrapped up with a friendly reminder that once upon a time “taxation without representation” led a few brave souls to launch a revolution that changed the course of history forever. I opined that we are well past “taxation without representation” this time around—and that sometimes history needs to repeat itself.
Today I want to peel back these layers of implication.
Why was taxation without representation a sufficient catalyst to foment the American revolution? Why were those few brave souls so willing to fight and die for their cause? What was it that compelled them to risk everything and strike back against their government abusers? How did they manage to overcome the superior occupying force? What did they do about the very real threat of public opinion being turned and used against them? In short, how did the seeds of freedom ever manage to bloom?
And perhaps more importantly, before we contemplate such curiosities, we must ask the pressing question: has the time come to rise up and cast off the shackles of tyranny? Do current circumstances justify such a revolutionary level rectification?
Reading the opening lines of our own Declaration of Independence, we learn:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” —Truth etched in stone.
When in the course of events it becomes necessary to dissolve political bonds, there needs to be a reasonable explanation. I think about the myriad movements in California, Oregon, and Washington that have cropped up, wherein rural communities and counties band together and entertain the idea of declaring their own independence from the tyranny of mob rule that is being facilitated through corrupt state capitals—in each instance, their reasonable explanations fall upon deaf ears.
The majority of citizens are apathetic and complacent. Most people being too comfortable to care, let alone take the drastic step of engaging in meaningful political push back.
As a result, those who feel as if they are being ignored and oppressed, taxed to oblivion without any meaningful state level representation (let alone federal), are continually being pressed into that tightening crevice between the proverbial rock and a hard place. What recourse does rural America have?
We are outnumbered by the metropolitan mobs, and the majority of those in the cities are woefully out of touch with reality. They live in a bubble of carefully tendered distraction, insulated from the reality that besets us, and generally unaware of the dark and nefarious plots that are converging upon us in this moment in time.
While it must be acknowledged that I am speaking in generalities, these factors are affecting us all, regardless of where we live. Take a look at this map and ask yourself:
Why isn’t the red team running the country?
The simple answer is, because we are outnumbered by idiots.
The idiots living in the big blue cities believe they know what is best for everyone else. They believe they have the right to decree any form of tax they want, to fund any sort of program they want, or to pass any sort of restrictive ordinance they want, simply because they happen to live in a big shiny city—as if that somehow makes them more powerful and wise than the ignorant rural peasantry.
Don’t think for a second that’s not how they think.
But did you know there are less than 10 cities in America that have more than a million people? We remain a mostly rural nation, and our Constitution was literally written to protect rural Americans from the creeping tyranny of mob rule. Thus, in theory, the law of the land should provide us, not only with protection, but with a clear path to rectify any sort of perversion or imbalance of power.
However, these straightforward facts do not account for the corruption of our elections, the proliferation of propaganda and public programming via mass media, or the subsequent lack of appetite for any sort of conflict among the American people.
The masses have been dumbed down and domesticated. They are docile. They defer. They cower in fear of being judged, of being called names, of being penalized, publicly shamed, or ostracized. They live not only in fear of their peers—not of the government—because they’ve been trained to believe the government exists to protect them from the meanness of other people. They view the government as a benevolent protector.
It’s worth noting that many of the original American colonists view the crown the exact same way—and they snitched on and undermined the rebels accordingly.
There are two things running parallel here:
The domestication of men who have lost the appetite to fight.
The domestication of the masses who see the government as a protector.
Both factors stand as obstacles to overcoming the tyranny of our time.
Many young men of today would rather play a video game and fight in the virtual world, for virtual rewards—while simultaneously being pacified and programmed to accept dependence upon the government as their means for actual sustenance and survival—rather than engage in any sort of direct confrontation or conflict.
They lack any incentive, let alone the spine, to stand against tyranny.
They won’t even stand against the gang-bangers and bad guys who are bullying, abusing, and beating on innocent people and elderly ladies in broad daylight. These cowards will never fight against anything, because they’ve been trained not to.
The older generation would be wise to weigh out what that means, as it relates to the need for any sort of revolutionary solutions to the current situation. If you’re waiting on the young men to buck up and set things straight, it ain’t gonna happen.
They don’t realize that taxation without representation is in fact tyranny, that nobody has the right to take your money and tell you what to do. They don’t realize that the government doesn’t have all the authority they claim to have. They don’t realize the Constitution restricts the government from violating our rights, and the 2nd Amendment guarantees our ability to keep and bear arms to protect our rights.
We have a right to fight back. Such are the Laws of Nature.
The only form of “just power” the government stems directly from the consent of the governed, that is, from consent and acceptance of the citizens. There is no justice when the government says, “Give me your money and do what we say, or else.” The government does not have the authority to do that, regardless of whether or not people believe that they do. They don’t. Period.
But, but, but… it’s the Law!
But what is the Law, really?
Is the law whatever anyone makes it out to be? That’s what it appears to be these days. The law is fickle and fleeting. Lawyers and judges disagree. Different courts provide different opinion. Even the Supreme Court routinely changes its interpretations.
So what is the law again? Is the law the authority for the government to take your money and tell you what to do? Only if that’s what you believe, or if fear has coerced you to accept such tyranny. But it is taxation without representation, is it not?
There is a passage in the Declaration of Independence that I believe speaks to this:
“…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms [of government] to which they are accustomed.”
It’s not so bad, right? Just shut up and pay your taxes, right? Just give them your money and do what they say, right? You don’t want to end up in a fight, right?
WRONG!!
Friends, we are suffering from a long train of abuses and usurpations. Our government is pursuing the same invariable object: total control and unlimited authority over our lives. They have designed a system—a global system—that intends to reduce our stature to that of tax paying slaves, as opposed to the “equal station” afforded to each of us by the Laws of Nature. They are implementing a system of absolute despotism.
AND, we do have the right to fight back, to cast off the shackles of tyranny, and to abolish—which means to utterly destroy—any form of government that aims to directly interfere with our life, liberty, and pursuit of personal happiness.
Are we not there now?
These truths were penned long ago, by men who knew what they meant, to remind all future generations of our birth rights, and to put authoritarian regimes on notice that the human spirit has been set free. That was the founding vision of America.
It’s time we revive that vision.
The red team is losing because the enemy keeps changing the rules. The red team is losing because there are too few people who are willing to fight. The red team is losing because people are scared of the government, scared to rock the boat, scared to make a stand. The red team is losing because most people don’t realize the liberties they’ve already lost. The red team is losing because the evils are still sufferable.
Here’s a question for you: What if the evil always stays sufferable?
What if the enemy realizes that if they only push so far, the people will adjust? What if they realize that once people adjust, their perspectives change, they get comfortable, and they settle back down into newly contrived routines? What if they’re right?
What if the majority of people never get uncomfortable enough to make a stand?
What if instead they are lulled into slavery, into accepting state censorship, surveillance, and the tyranny that inevitably ensues? What if they never woke up?
That’s the direction we’re headed. The cities are already there.
If the peasants don’t wise up—and rise up—soon, these despots will win for good.
TR 482 - Understanding Taxation Without Representation