Would You Trade Your Freedom for a Full Stomach?
How to Sell Your Birthright of Liberty for a Mess of Pottage
A participant in another forum recently asserted this:
"Liberty means little to a man with an empty stomach and no hope for the future."
My response:
False statement. Utterly false and dangerously so.
Liberty IS hope for the future.
The only thing that would deny a hungry man "hope for the future" would not be his empty stomach - which would spur him to productive action - but lack of the freedom to go to work and improve his lot in life - to be condemned forever to his meager circumstances by the dictates of others - the sort of deeply rooted tyranny that most of the early immigrants to America were fleeing.
"We'll fill up your stomach and ensure your future if you'll just give up your liberty. Indeed, what need have you for liberty if your stomach is full and you have a roof over your head? What more is there to life than that? Trust us! We know best!"
Or, as the World Economic Forum's quintessential Bond villain, Klaus Schwab ("Vee must masta zee fucha!") has declared for us (but not for them), we will "own nothing and be happy". We'll own nothing because the tyrants will own everything, and we'll be happy because they tell us we're happy - whether we really are or not. In other words, they'll have us, as the Brits like to say, by the short hairs and we'll do exactly as we're told, because if we don't comply, they'll have power to deny us everything we need to live. Obey or die!
"Trust us! Give us your freedom and we'll take care of you!"
This is in fact the totalitarian argument - the tyrant's Big Lie - as old as time - in fact older than time.
The Bible speaks of a primordial "war in heaven" before the world was (Revelations 12:7-12), wherein those on God's side fought against Satan and his supporters. Satan and his minions lost the battle and were cast out. The Bible account does not reveal the issues that were at stake in that conflict, but modern revelation does:
"And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.
"But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me— 'Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.'
"Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;
"And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice." - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:1-4
Notice the salient points in this account and see if anything sounds familiar. Lucifer - Satan - seeking to sit on the throne of God, was driven by arrogance, ambition and hunger for power (Isaiah 14:12-14). He saw the power and glory of God and wanted it for himself. He thought he could get it by overriding individual free agency and compelling all to do what he dictated, thereby ensuring that "not one soul shall be lost" - and he wanted God to give him the power to do that. God's will, on the other hand, was that his children should be free to choose for themselves - that free agency for all was the only way that God's plan for his children could be realized.
Thus, then as now, the issue was free agency - freedom - liberty. Shall we be free to choose for ourselves and bear the consequences of our choices, as God intended and decreed - to make of ourselves what we can and will - or shall we be controlled by others who consider themselves better and smarter than the rest of us and, like Lucifer - who was "a liar from the beginning" - flatter us and tell us lies about what they can do in order to get power over us?
Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose. Nothing new under the sun.
God wills that we should be free. The lust for power over others is satanic.
This "hope for the future" that springs from liberty is the engine that drove the founding of America. Indeed, traditionally, that hope was "the American Dream" - a dream that, until it was corrupted by the satanic demons at our head, drew immigrants to our shores:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore."
Unlike those who, thanks to our corrupt and seditious leadership, are arriving illegally and unhindered in their millions today, sucking away the wealth of the citizenry, those early immigrants - legal immigrants - came not for a hand-out, but for the opportunity to "breathe free" and for the freedom to work for a better life. Again, it was that spirit that founded and built America.
That is all there is, folks. Life, liberty and the pursuit - not the guarantee - of happiness as each of us is free to define it. More or less than this cometh of evil. Life doesn't get any better than that, but it can get much, much worse - and it most certainly will, unless we are vigilant on the watchtower of liberty. Those who understand this will identify with Patrick Henry's proverbial statement:
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! [He did] I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, light vs. darkness, law vs. lawlessness, justice vs. injustice, liberty vs. tyranny, good vs. evil, God vs. the Godless...
Time to take a side. You will, one way or another.
If you can be fooled, you will be.
These are the times that try men's souls...
Torquemada
To create a civil society, we all cede some of our freedoms to society and/or a government - I have always defined liberty as total freedom less that what we cede. The reminder is liberty.
Every person who is dependent upon welfare, amounting to around 65 million people as of 2021, have already sold parts of their freedom, some have sold all, of their right to self determination to the government.