Photo Credit: George Roelofson
When nations are faced with the ramifications of catastrophic economic collapse, things can become dicey for citizens. Let’s face it, life today is pretty hectic. Typically, both parents in a family have to work full time to make ends meet, and that is assuming there are two parents and not only one. In our routine day to day lives, we have kids and their school activities, social obligations, and of course family who require out attention. It is easy to get lost in the day to day and not have the time or energy to take a step back to see the macro view of our lives. It is easy to just accept the cliff-notes view that is handed to us by the mass-media.
Consider, if you will, a nation that has out-of-control spending and ever-increasing regulation. This nation had suffered a financial collapse with ever-increasing unemployment, and as a result, it repeatedly attempted to use “shovel ready” public projects to get its citizens working again. A recovery could not be achieved, so this nation’s leaders felt they had no choice but to begin printing more and more currency to artificially prop up the financial system. As always occurs, this led to unprecedented levels of inflation.
This scenario above depicts a nation experiencing a catastrophic economic collapse. Human beings being human beings responded by demanding security. Leaders being leaders responded by seizing power and taking steps to control the situation. Unfortunately the situation was uncontrollable. As things became dire, this nation’s citizens were willing to grasp at any straw as long as someone would make their lives work again. They were willing to accept almost any degradation.
The nation, vulnerable and financially bankrupt, was a fertile field for an opportunist to take advantage of. This opportunist represented a party that was willing to make one segment of the population a scapegoat for the economic hardships that citizens were experiencing. In effect, this leader blamed the rich. As you might guess the strategy was fantastically successful. The only problem was that the nation’s constitution guaranteed rights that were a problem for these parties’ plans. The solution was to ignore those constitutional guarantees.
By now you have likely guessed what nation I am referring to. What is frightening is that when we see today’s news, how much of what happened then is taking place now. I noticed on this week, on the first Friday of the New Year, a judge ruled that the majority of Americans were now subject to search and seizure of their electronic devices like laptops and iPhones. That’s right. If you live and work within 100 miles of the coast or a international border, this ruling says law enforcement can go through your belongings on a whim – no search warrant needed. In similar fashion, earlier last week, Americas witnessed citizens lining up in Connecticut to register their weapons and ammunition. This is another key step that earlier regime took. I have noted other examples in earlier posts, but you get the point. My thought is that it is our duty as American citizens to keep our eyes open and take note of the news items we see, not as an individual incident, but as a puzzle piece in a larger picture. It is incumbent on each of us to resist the loss of freedom lest we find ourselves going down the same path that German citizens did in the 1930’s. There is a threat out there from terrorism, but my question to you is this. Are the government over-reaches and their ignoring our constitution really making us any safer? I can only speak for myself, but I am much, much more afraid of unaccountable government thugs than I am of terrorists. If nothing else, there are many more government thugs, who while ‘just following orders,’ who can ruin a person’s life than there are terrorists in America.
The reason I wrote Phoenix Republic was and is to get Americans to wake up to the big picture. We all have things we believe in and we should all do what we can to win hearts and minds with regard to achieving the best for our country. My point is that there is a bigger picture than left vs. right politics. We do not all have to agree on individual policies but it is imperative that we all agree on defending freedom.
Additional Resources:
First hand accounts:
The first of these, a woman named Irma from Massachusetts talks about the comparison between today’s America and what she experienced in Germany. This is very compelling and I highly recommend listening to it. The second link is another woman who lived under the Nazis. Her presentation is 46 minutes long. It is instructive and compares Germany to the US today – with excerpts of current events juxtaposed with the historic events she is speaking to.
Related news stories:
http://www.truthandaction.org/judge-reaffirms-constitution-free-zones-100-miles-inside-u-s-borders/
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/1920s/Econ20s.htm
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