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.