I am responding to your article "HAVE THEY SKINNED THE RATTLESNAKE?", that a friend of mine recently shared.
Ron Paul 2012 • RonPaulWNC • LibertyAsheville
I'm certainly no political scientist. However, I've been involved enough in the study of the Philosophy of Liberty and as a witness of mainstream politics over the past couple of decades to learn why all these things are happening, and how we could remedy the problem. Perhaps you might humor me, as the mere layperson that I am, and consider my answer to your question.
To put it as simply as I possibly can, the "Liberal VS Conservative" dogma is pure deception. These are not true ideologies or philosophies, but are rather terms which have adopted deceptive and erroneous meanings over decades, and have been erroneously associated with the 2-party duopoly in what I call "Neo-Amerika", leaving individuals to be fooled into believing there are only two (false) ideologies with which to associate.
Over the past century, while Americans have been increasingly divided over this deception (which I believe was initiated by none other than the "great deceiver" who transcends this third dimension), the masses are distracted and duped and do not see the real battle of secular ideologies, which is "Collectivism VS Individualism", nor the ongoing fundamental spiritual battle that is continually fought: "Liberty VS Tyranny".
The Democrat-Republican political duopoly which has been created via the draconian Plurality Voting system both adopt the Collectivist philosophies of Socialism and Fascism — the Democratic Party leans more toward Socialism, while the Republican Party leans more toward Fascism, but these lines are seldom distinct and often crossover.
The degree to which individuals adopt either of these authoritarian Collectivist philosophies, Socialism and/or Fascism, is the degree to which they reject the Individualist philosophy which is grounded in Liberty, and therefore also the degree to which they embrace Tyranny.
So when a movement comes along that attempts to embrace aspects of Individualist philosophy rooted in Liberty, the status quo of whichever "political side" of the duopoly being courted often winds up usurping and diluting the movement because of their own deception and allegiance to their own party, rather than to Liberty itself.
The Tea Party is a perfect example of this phenomenon. It began as an outcry against economic corruption, yet after only a couple years, those politicians who are being billed as "Tea Party Candidates" are the same who have continually voted for legislation that perpetuates the same economic corruption that the Tea Party is supposed to be against.
This is party due to the fact that the Tea Party was never really grounded in any kind of Individualist/Libertarian philosophy. Rather, just like the recent "Occupy" movement, it was based upon the rants of those witnessing massive economic corruption, but apparently never understanding the causes of the corruption in the first place, thus, not understanding the remedies that Individualist philosophy and various free market solutions have to offer.
Therefore, most of the membership of any such rebellious movement who would otherwise choose Liberty over the existing and growing Tyranny, are gradually fooled into again embracing their chosen "lesser-of-two-evils" Collectivist political party agendas, like dogs returning to their own vomit.
I don't entirely fault these individuals on either political "side", because I believe the deception is widespread (via the controlled public education system and mass media) and extremely powerful — so powerful, that even these Christians of whom you speak ignore the principles of Liberty about which their own Messiah teaches, embrace the deception, and thus unknowingly work together in advancing Tyranny.
On one hand, the "Liberal Christians" often erroneously equate Biblical teachings regarding individual economic decisions (for example: voluntary giving to the poor/needy) with the agenda to advance Socialism, while on the other hand, the "Conservative Christians" often erroneously equate Biblical teachings regarding individual personal decisions (for example: voluntary medicine options) with the agenda to advance Fascism. Still, these lines often blur and even occasionally cross as both "sides" use organizations within both the Public and Private sectors in order to advance their agendas via force upon individuals who would otherwise be free to live without government or corporate intervention and manipulation.
Regardless, both of these Christian camps erroneously attempt to institute their interpretations of Biblical doctrine by means of Collectivist "mob rules" force, giving almost no consideration to the unalienable individual Liberty which is granted to us all by our Creator. In like manner, non-religious Collectivists follow suit after their own chosen anti-Liberty philosophies, and Tyranny continues to grow.
Summing up the answer to your question of "why" these things are happening: In general, the masses — both religious and non-religious — have nearly entirely forgotten what Liberty actually means, along with the understanding that Liberty is of our Creator (transcending all human Collectives, and irregardless of anyone's personal belief of the meaning "Creator"), resulting in the adoption of a false ideological system through which deception abounds.
My suggestion as to "how" it might be possible to break out of this perpetual cycle is to continue spreading the education of The Philosophy of Liberty to as many individuals as possible, and to remind our Christian brethren that they need to seriously re-educate themselves about the principles which are fundamental to the Liberty granted to us by our Creator.
Without having a solid foundation in the knowledge of Liberty upon which to build our ideals and agendas, any movement hoping to advance Liberty is doomed to skin itself.
8-)
bernard baruch carman
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On Mar 22, 2012, at 9:07 AM, Richard Brown shared:
HAVE THEY SKINNED THE RATTLESNAKE?
By Lee Duigon
March 22, 2012
NewsWithViews.comI have a degree in Political Science; but I have no idea what to call government by the least capable, the least qualified, the least moral, and the least fitted to the task of governing. In other words, I never learned a technical term that would apply to the government of the United States today.There’s a lot that goes on here, politically, that Political Science can’t explain. For instance, twice as many American voters identify themselves as “conservatives” as opposed to “liberal.” And yet for some reason the 20% of the electorate that identifies as “liberal” completely runs the show. In a representative republic, how can that be?It is as if the American people have become irrelevant to the business of running the country. We don’t matter anymore. We hate Obamacare, and yet we’ve got Obamacare. We want to protect the institution of marriage, but our courts and media won’t let us. We hate high gas prices, but the people who run the country seem to love them. In overwhelming numbers we cry out against the crazy spending that’s pushing our country into oblivion; but it only seems to make our government spend more.Most mystifying of all, we elected these people who are destroying us.Everywhere you look, we get the opposite of what we want. We don’t want schools that teach our children to be numbskulls and libertines, but we’ve got ‘em. We don’t want colleges that cost a fortune in tuition and prepare the graduates to be convenience store clerks with advanced degrees in History or Women’s Studies; but that’s what we’ve got. We don’t want a lone, cranky atheist to be able to shut down our town’s Christmas parade—or at least force us to change its name to “Winter Festival,” conjuring up images of druids leaping over bonfires—but that’s what we get.Was there ever really, truly, a groundswell among Americans for major league baseball players to appear in a film exhorting teenagers to stay with homosexuality because “It Gets Better” with time? Was there ever a demand for federal lunch-room police? Three out of four of us are Christians—and yet our president’s re-election campaign includes in its finances a million-dollar contribution from a “celebrity” whose whole schtick is to malign Christianity and Christians. Would a man who hates Christians fork over a million dollars to a politician who loves Christians? And how do Christian voters wind up with anti-Christian rulers?Did we ever ask for Congress to pass 2,000-page bills that give government entry into all sorts of intimate areas of our lives—bills that no politician reads before voting to enact, bills written by nobody-knows-who, for the benefit of someone, somewhere, but not us? They do it, we yell and scream about it, and then they do it again.Have we ever suggested that our dream in life is to work ourselves to death so that public employees can retire at 55 and bum around the Bahamas, buy a horse farm, or tour the French wine country on their pensions? Did we ask for the United Nations to monitor our elections to make sure we don’t interfere with the rights of dead people, felons, and illegal aliens to vote for Democrats?How was it ever possible for the majority of the voters in a great nation to elect leaders who consistently act against the voters’ interest, who go out of their way to provoke them, honoring the things the voters hate and wiping their shoes on things the voters love? Or is it that all these leaders have to do is cobble together a coalition of “minorities” won over with entitlements and special favors, and—Presto! Suddenly the majority becomes, for all practical purposes, the minority inside its own country, and may be spat upon with impunity.What ever happened to “Don’t Tread on Me”? Has the rattlesnake been skinned and made into a doormat?Where is the Tea Party today? In 2010 the Tea Party rose up and took back the House of Representatives. The Tea Party marched in tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands—And still, in spite of all that marching, we got Obamacare fastened around our necks like the collar of a slave. And still we’ve got the spending frenzy, the plotting and scheming against our liberties, the wholesale looting of America for the benefit of the political class and its trusty clients, and the utter degradation of what remains of our culture.I’m a political scientist, and Political Science cannot explain why all these things are happening, or how they happen.Can you?© 2012 Lee Duigon - All Rights ReservedLee Duigon, a contributing editor with the Chalcedon Foundation, is a former newspaper reporter and editor, small businessman, teacher, and horror novelist. He has been married to his wife, Patricia, for 34 years. See his new fantasy/adventure novels, Bell Mountain and The Cellar Beneath the Cellar, available on www.amazon.comWebsite: LeeDuigon.comE-Mail: leeduigon@verizon.net