Atlas' Sorry Existence

George Washington said it best:

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

This was one of the foremost proven results of the War To Prevent Southern Independence (1861-1865).  For the Federals, it was a question of power; for the Confederacy, it was a question of existence. The only thing resolved at Appomattox was the fact that the crushing power of Leviathan reigned supreme.  The Fedgov had out-lasted and out-spent the "enemy", but it had not conquered their identity.

Given into the hands of those who would control others, the power of government (as we know it today) is the power to destroy or to bend.  That same Fedgov has created at least two entirely new conditions of servitude: one voluntary and the other involuntary.

The voluntary servitude has been inflicted upon those  who survive on the teat of the Fedgov.  Programs to numerous to count ensure that all those who come within a particular program's jurisdiction shall be beholden to the Master for provision of some sort.  The most notable of such programs is the one providing unemployment benefits - now extending to three years - and providing an easy market of affiliation for whatever political party or candidate making such largess possible.

With rare exception, people (should I call them "victims of the state"?)  choose to participate, voluntarily, in this charade of being free people.  Their condition is nothing more than a mockery of what a free man or woman actually is.  The lie is apparent to all but them.

This brings one to consider the involuntary servitude of the present day.  The current crop of slaves-against-their-will are the citizens who are paying for all of the "programs".  We watch our money being spent by those who have taken it from us with the threat of force (the Fedgov).  We notice that it is being spent, quite often, upon cementing the voluntary slaves into their position of fealty and dependence.

We, the involuntary slaves, also are fond of saying that we are free.  The fact is that we are not any more free than are the voluntary slaves.  Both groups will be perpetually locked into our squirrel-cage existence until one of one decides that the humiliation must cease.  H. L. Mencken said, "Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under".  One day, the humiliation and the shame will become too great to bear.  Only then will Atlas shrug.

Deo Vindice