When
you lose your illusions you see yourself and your own actions
clearly. We need to see our present circumstances as they are and not
as we want them to be. We have an opportunity to take back our
country but that window of opportunity will close rapidly. We need to
return to the form of government experienced by our Founders. We need
to stop talking about freedom and set tasks that return control of
government to the people at the most local level and change our
economy from one that has us hemorrhaging jobs and money to one that
keeps money local.
Each of these goals takes us to freedom; not
just words but the reality. And despite appearances to the contrary,
the establishment of a real freedom has never been more possible.
To
accomplish that we need to build coalition from all ideological
viewpoints. Without coalition we will not be able to come together as
a people who govern themselves at that most local, community level.
It is possible; we need to lose our illusions. The government we see
today does not work and it cannot be fixed. All hierarchal systems
are subject to the same problems.
When people are remote from you
they seem alien and therefore less human. This was true with all
people. Those they do not know they are willing to abuse and
manipulate.
All movements experience the same problems, left
to right, Patriot, Progressive, Libertarian, Liberal, Ron Paul,
Environmental, Conservative, Free Market, Election Reform, Peace,
have been created from frustrations with the present systemic
conversion and corruption. All of us have spent to much time spinning
our wheels, engaging in action that did not advance the agenda for
freedom or justice. We need to change that, starting now.
A
people who govern themselves must first free themselves, starting
with their prejudices, misconceptions and illusions. We cannot free
America; each of us must do that for ourselves, but we can give
Americans the tools to do so.
Only by coming together and seeing
the truth can we bring America back from the precipice. The community
is our exit from fascism.
Over the last more than 200 years our
form of government has been converted from a people who governed,
handled it themselves at the most local level, to a serial monarchy
that rules from the Federal level as subcontractors and partners to
that small clutch of European bankers.
The present states,
counties, cities and towns, have nearly all incorporated. This
allowed those European Bankers and their domestic partners to limit
liability, turn money entrusted for the common good into profits for
a small cadre, now including judges, the local comptroller, and
others. They had a real growth industry on their hands and they were
willing to share the stolen property in small increments. In this way
control was solidified.
The use of disinformation and ideology to
divide Americans began very early, longer ago than the life of any
living among us today. Terms such as Communist, Socialist, Radical,
Constitutionalist, Right Wing Nut, Environmental Crazy and so forth
all came into use as ideas used to divide and control us. When they
started buying up the media it was the final nail in the coffin for
freedom existing in a hierarchal world.
Those who laid out that
strategy to ensure their own profits intended to destroy the
foundations on which our freedoms rested. They wanted us to forget
what freedom really means. They failed but they came close. Our
freedom rests on cultural roots, values and practices and in our very
nature.
We have focused on politics and ignored the local and
cooperative institutions that made America the most powerful force
for prosperity and security that has ever existed. It wasn't hidden
from us, we just overlooked it, taking it for granted. Americans had
problems in the 1800s and they solved those problems using
innovation, initiative, sweat equity, and their own hard earned
money.
The often repeated dichotomy between “Private Sector and
for profit” and “Government Solutions” ignores neatly what
actually works best. When you see it you understand why and how a
free people could and did govern themselves. They cooperated.
Many
call it the Civil Sector. It is made up of churches, fraternal
orders, civic organizations, charities and other groups, who solve
the problems that occur in any community. Those are the people who
see problems and take action. They are staffed and run by the people
who raise the money and do the work. Staying local works. That is the
core of the solution.
The Civil Sector generated enormous profits
from what they did and do - but those profits are not calculated in
money but in social benefits, stability, and security enjoyed by all
of us.
Such organizations came in all flavors for every taste and
need, you can take your pick. Americans did just that.
The Elks
started the first member support program when they were still 12 out
of work actors in New York in 1867. One of their number died. Looking
at each other the remaining 11 ponied up the funds to bury their dead
friend and support his wife and children. In just three decades they
had over a thousand chapters.
The Grange, known also as the Order
of Patrons of Husbandry, started on December 4, 1867 in Washington D.
C. Its major objectives were to support stewardship of America's
natural resources; promotion of world-wide free trade; a combination
of local and federal support for rural education, medical,
communications, and road systems; non-partisan political
participation; assurance of safe and properly labeled food products;
organization of cooperatives and other economic services to support
rural Americans; and elimination of direct government farm programs
so as to assure a competitive and efficient farm system. It is the
first organization that allowed women to hold any office.
Those
are two examples. There are thousands.
Today our civic sector is
struggling because all such organizations have been sidelined by
government in ways overt and subtle. But they remain with us and they
and new ones can be used or rebuilt.
We have the tools for
rebuilding. Community. Cooperate. Constitution. Common Law. The three
Cs.
Instead of using the word, “govern” think “how do we
handle it ourselves?” The Civic Sector can help solve the problems
that we will encounter at the local level. It was the tool Americans
built to solve their own problems. It is still there, waiting. Go
home to your community. Look at what is there and how many solutions
others have built for us.
The institutions we pay for, courts,
government, and so forth are presently under the control of a small
group. We are locked into an economic system enforced by
corporations. We can break out. We can enact change that affirms our
inherent nature for individual freedom. The solutions are already
there because Americans innovate like no one else on the face of the
Earth. We do not need to politically persuade, just show others why
those solutions will make their lives better. When that becomes
obvious the opposition will be trampled into goo.