DIVIDE & CONQUER |
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You know the old adage, "Divide and Conquer". Well it's not just a maxim from some ancient battlefield. It's real, it's insidious, it's here and it's now. It's happnin' man - to us! It's the favorite tactic of all ENEMIES OF FREEDOM. They do it all the time. You know the routine. One ploy is to propose a tax-break - but only for some taxpayers - and invariably, a group of taxpayers that constitutes a large voting-block of people who garner sympathy and approval. The target of the tax-break may be children, the aged, students, un-wed mothers, hog-farmers - the list is endless. The sports-numbed hoi-polloi are as easy prey for this surreptitious attack on their freedom as a bunny is for a Velociraptor. Another ploy is, of course, to raise taxes on a group not in favor - usually because THEY have worked overtime to paint the group as greedy, uncaring or dangerous. "Rich" people and corporations are favorite targets here. Then there is the ploy of granting to a select group special privilege that no other people are allowed to have. It may be homosexuals, police officers, the handicapped, minorities, or favored political parties. The converse ploy is to burden certain groups disfavored by the Powers that Be. Examples are holding manufacturers and distributors of products liable for their misuse by stupid people. This would include the tobacco and liquor and firearms industries among others. So the Ploys of Perdition fall generally into granting and restricting economic and personal freedom - the very things that libertarians know should be left alone. The effect of this government-induced Tower of Babble is to divide the citizenry into camps with different self-interests and to pit them against each other as often as possible to foment mistrust and hatred. Divide and Conquer. Of course this is an ongoing, continuous process, this Death of a Thousand Cuts. Like putting a frog in a kettle of cool water and slowly turning up the heat until it's goose is cooked before it knows it. I call this Incrementalism. It is insidious. It is evil. And it is effective. Some libertarians see this incrementalism and think that we ought to fight fire with fire. Innocently, they grasp at any crumb of relief from this freedom-crushing juggernaut - supporting any meager tax cut or loosening of restrictions or burdens - regardless of it's divisiveness. But, sadly, what these well-meaning libertarians fail to comprehend is that although incrementalism is a very effective tool for the ENEMY - it just doesn't work very well for us. The reason is that in order to regain all of the freedom lost since the founding of this nation - we would have to retrace all of the steps that led to this sad state in which we reside - and I don't want to wait over two centuries for freedom! Do you? No way. The path to freedom is the opposite of incrementalism. We need to unify people, not just tinker with the fragmentation of society. The citizens need to be educated as to what has been and is being done to them, how they have been used for pawns in the Big Boys' little game of chess with their lives. They need to have their consciousness raised as to their fundamental mutual interest in freedom and how it would liberate and enrich their economic and personal lives. And the way to do this is to push for legislation which enhances freedom in any way - as long as it applies to all Americans. This will not be easy. The ENEMY is no fool. The Minions of Muggery know this would be the death knell of their nefarious machinations and will resist the hell out of it. But it is the only way for us to achieve true freedom in this nation - within the lifetime of those now living. And if we don't do it now - who will? and when? 
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