Hope Springs Eternal?3-22-2002Spring has officially arrived, and hereabouts, the locals awoke to a healthy eight-inch blanket of fresh new snow worthy of a traditional January bluster. Oddly enough, the winter months' conditions in these parts this year more closely resembled what we might expect during a normal Spring. Along with everything else in the world these days, even the weather is all screwed up. Indeed, these are interesting times in which we live. Americans are increasingly compelled to relinquish their liberty to "preserve" their freedom, and the official omniscient classes inform us that the polar ice caps are precariously melting. Perhaps hell is freezing over, too. No doubt, the alarmists, the manipulators, the predators, and the parasites are all enjoying their temporal gains and influence, but as someone once wryly observed, time wounds all heels. I suppose it necessarily must get worse before it gets better, because in spite of a microscopic minority decrying the increasingly totalitarian nature of the United States government, the vast majority of Americans are seemingly lemming-like in their unequivocal approval of the mega-state. I have long suspected that the efficacy of government education is directly proportional to the lamentably slavish mentality of the general populace. Outrageous? I ask you, then, when have you lately heard a civic leader or a tenured educator extol the classical American virtues of individual liberty, self-governance, and personal responsibility? There are exceptions, of course. U.S. Representative, "Congressman No," Dr. Ron Paul of Texas comes immediately to mind. A few maverick throw-backs teaching in public schools may hold principles dear and instruct accordingly for a time, but these are invariably and systematically rooted out. What course, then, for the concerned and the solitary, he who in spite of the modern collective environment, still feels the heat of freedom's flame burning within his breast? There are no easy answers, and if I may cite another sage without attribution (I never claimed to know it all), "Freedom is not free." Resistance to tyranny on a personal level requires sacrifices not for the faint of heart. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said (I know this one), "The tree of liberty must from time to time be nourished with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Old Tom also thought it meet that "a good revolution occur about once every twenty years." Does anyone still remember the Declaration of Independence or Thomas Jefferson? There is hope, however. The same modern technology that has delivered oppressive new tools of subjugation into the hands of those that know what's best for all of us, has also given us an amazing tool for accessible enlightenment. I refer to the internet, the information highway, aptly named, "the world wide web." Arguably too large and diverse to effectively be shut down by circumspect government technocrats (touch wood), the internet is the new lifeline for communications and resource sharing between freedom loving people around the world. Knowledge is power, baby! Want to find out about something? Go to Google.com and type it in (they even list me)! Given that politics and the arts of control are logistically too large to be one-on-one battles in the strictly military/coercive sense, they are necessarily and ultimately battles fought in the cerebral arena. I mean, only so many thousands of police and soldiers per millions of common people comprising the global community exist, and therefore the battle lost for the hearts and minds of the people, is ultimately a battle lost for the political control of those people. Sweet Jesus! The truth will set you free! The same technology wielded by governments in their stubborn, unceasing quests for power and influence, is a mighty two-edged sword that has, thank God, hopefully shifted the balance of power back in favor of the people.
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