About three years ago, a faithful reader of my blog contacted me to say she would no longer be leaving comments or otherwise communicating by email because she was entirely withdrawing from the Internet. She was also dropping her cell phone and closing her credit card. She was embarking on an all-cash lifestyle and even had plans to go off-grid.
Why? Because she had concerns that she, along with everyone else in America, was being tracked ... and she didn't like it. Her response to these concerns was to withdraw as much as possible from modern life.
I confess I thought this was a bit extreme, but I wished her well and said goodbye. I question how much anyone (without reverting to a primitive lifestyle) could withdraw sufficiently from the modern world to avoid being tracked in some manner.
Nonetheless I'm beginning to think she had a point.
I was reminded of this reader's actions a few days when I saw a story about how Tesco supermarkets in the U.K. are keeping track of what customers are buying in order to urge them to choose more healthy foods.
Now before you start to sputter in anger about how it's none of the store's business what groceries (healthy or otherwise) someone buys, consider this: In a society where the government pays for health care (as in the U.K.), it is entirely the government's business to monitor what its citizens eat and urge (force?) them to live a healthier lifestyle. If others are paying for your health care, they have every right to police every morsel that passes through your lips. They have every right to regulate and control your recreational activities. They have every right to clamp down on whatever the heck they please, if it affects your health.
So before you get scolded by your local government health-care provider for buying that bag of Doritos and the six-pack last Saturday night, you'd better think long and hard about just how much you want the government involved in your health care … or anything else.
Health care is just the tip of the iceberg. The government is no stranger to scandal when it comes to dismantling the constitutional restrictions placed upon it. The government steals profit from producers and redistributes it toward the non-producers. It herds children into indoctrination centers for 13 (or more) years and punishes parents who refuse to relinquish their offspring. It audits us for punitive reasons, incrementally dismantles our Second Amendment, steals our medical information, taps our phone lines and reads our emails.
Does this sound paranoid? Maybe. But remember the old adage: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're wrong.
Now here's the thing to remember: Paranoia can run on both sides. Sure, we're being tracked. But WHY is the government tracking us? That's right: it's paranoid. It's scared that the American people will one day remember their roots and rise up in revolt. It's nervous that, despite years of dumbing us down, we're still clinging bitterly to our guns and Bibles and resisting interference in our businesses, churches and personal lives. It's frightened that, despite laws and shortages and generational indoctrination, there are more firearms and more ammunition in the hands of private citizens than at any other time in history.
No other nation in the world was conceived with the inbuilt freedoms of America. The concept was revolutionary: Allow maximum freedom to citizens while curtailing government power through constitutional limitations and strict adherence to the Bill of Rights. It was a unique experiment and one that proved roaringly successful … so long as the people demanded those limitations be observed.
But little by little those restrictions have been ignored, belittled and forgotten. The government introduced mandatory indoctrination for children and then deliberately chose not to teach them our nation's inheritance. This went a long way toward permitting the government to overstep its bounds and begin the path to tyranny. In this they have been aided and abetted by the mainstream media's incestuous protection, thus ensuring a smooth transition from liberty to enslavement.
America is engaged in a constant tug-of-war. Progressives want more government control, patriots want less control, and the result is conflict. It's no accident that so many writings of the Founding Fathers focused on limiting how much power the government was permitted to have. These prescient men must be turning in their graves to know how far we've departed from the ideals they set forth. As Thomas Jefferson noted, "An elective despotism was not the government we fought for."
Very simply, as someone remarked on a WND comment, "This country was formed for the purpose of providing individuals with the freedom to choose for themselves, to succeed or fail by their own terms, without fear of an intrusive, oppressive government. We need to return to original intent. Over regulations and over taxation and an overbearing, bloated government is destroying this nation."
This person is correct. America was NOT founded in order to have every minutia of our lives dictated by the government. It was founded as an experiment in liberty.
Yet it is the nature of government to grow, and in this respect the American government is no different than any other totalitarian regime. This is why it is so hostile toward homeschoolers (can't have children free from government indoctrination centers!) patriots (can't have people reading the Constitution or Bill of Rights!) and even churches (can't have people acknowledging that God, not politicians, is king!).
Remember, politicians deny that our rights are derived from the Creator. Instead they want to convince us that rights are privileges granted by the state. And of course what the government gives, it can take away.
This is why my blog reader decided to try her own unique experiment: to withdraw, as much as possible, from modern society in order to be left alone. I have no idea how her experiment is going since, obviously, we no longer communicate.
I must admit, the idea of total withdrawal has a certain appeal. However, I'll also admit that if we all passively withdrew from modern society, the result would be an instant growth of unchecked tyranny, not the reverse. As George Washington said, "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
Our job it to KEEP the "dangerous servant" afraid of us. As long as the government is fearful, we still have liberty.
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