A Nation of Oppression

 

            Behold the greatest economic, political and military power in the world today, The United States of America. This country, a nation born of the highest moral ideals, has been the greatest proponent and prime example for the advocation of freedom and democracy. Yet as such, America today is exhibiting the same characteristics it was founded as a release from. Our forefathers would gape in astonishment at the atrocities we call law, as any enlightened person should. From State union laws to the federal Medicare program, idealistic freedom has long since been trampled by the will of the self-righteous.

            America as a nation is young compared to the sovereignties of Europe and Asia. Barely two hundred years ago, the men of mind conceived it as a harbinger of freedom. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” –Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence. The ideal these words spoke of was the premise on which this country was founded. The early Americans saw freedom from the oppressive laws the English harbored against them, as the finest of aspirations. These Americans were among the first to truly realize the folly of men dictating the lives of others and adopted a constitution designed to prevent this from reoccurring.

            Isn’t it strange then, that so young of a country has become the voice of hypocrisy? The constitution was written with the highest moral intentions: among these lies the goal of protecting minorities against oppression by the majorities. Underlying this, is the base moral premise: no man exists for the sake of another, no man can truly have a god-given or man-given right to impose his will on another. This premise represents freedom at the most basic level; the composers of our constitution represented this as best they could in the hopes of a great nation of free people. Somewhere along the line, we, as a people, have lost sight of this.

Everyday is a new experience in surprise and disgust; the open advocation of oppression is sickening. We find it in every aspect of life; from lawmakers to people engaged in casual conversation. Either through ignorance, misguided ethics, or arrogance, our culture finds it easy to justify imposing rules and regulations that limit the freedom and rights of the individual. Ignorance is perhaps the most prevalent cause; people just don’t understand how evil their intentions are. Judeo-Christian ethics dictate superiority: we have the right to impose on you because we know better than you. Arrogance is the tool of self-righteous: I will do what I want, how I want, because I’m right. “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights, cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” –Ayn Rand.

Montana State Union laws require that if a majority of the workers in a workplace want to form a union, every worker in said workplace must join or quit. Franklin Roosevelt found it justifiable to requisition another man’s earnings in order to pay for retirement of another. Again, Medicare thrives on the looting of honest wages in order to support those who are unwilling or unable to support themselves. Now to clarify, there would be no qualms were this a voluntary association; but garnishing the product of man’s labor and mind without consent is equitable to stealing. Montana’s seat-belt law is another example of imposition on will where there should be none; while perhaps a wise thing to do, no one should be forced to.

Across the country there exists a massive amount of ordinances that dictate and restrict what a person can do within the confines of their own homes, with their own property and even within situations of mutual consent. You cannot use mind-altering drugs within the confines of your home, because the majority ethics define it as being wrong. You cannot construct a building on your on property without paying a fee, getting it approved, and having it inspected by the government.  You cannot take pity on and release someone from their tortuous existence, even if they should beg it of you. The extent of majorities’ stranglehold on the minorities and death grip on the individual is tormenting to the soul.

In early America, the lawless were the only ones to partake in extortion. Now, like the tyranny it was created to escape, America too exercises this practice. The multitude of fees, required by the various departments of the government applying to commercial and private regimes, is too appalling to mention. Most of which are constructed to regulate things a government should not be involving itself in to begin with. A paramount example of such extortion is present right here in Bozeman, Montana. The City of Bozeman misused it privileges to extort a monstrous sum of 500,000 dollars from Wal-mart so that it might expand its store here. I find it simply horrid, the lengths at which the government has gone to penalize a private company for being successful.

Witnessing America today, it’s difficult to a see a utopia of freedom on the horizon. Our country embraces the will of the majority with disregard to the will of the minority. It’s permeated by ethics that dismember personal freedom and leave it a shattered remnant of what it once represented. Our lawmaking bodies are all too quick to pass legislation that further limits and encroaches upon last vestiges of the individual right. The creation of our constitution marked a bold venture on the path to true enlightenment. It seems the weaknesses of men always prevail, even over the grandest of designs.