This post deserves to be posted in a prominent sub-forum (osan)

[tod evans]

The thicker the forest, the worse the fire.

Just think of the mayhem the self-entitled government "employees" and pensioners are going to wrought once it starts burning....

They are afterall the wise and empowered whose job it has been to corral the mundanes, certainly once government can no longer support them it'll fall to the inconsequential mundanes to provide their sustenance...

 

[CaptUSA]

And then, there are those that are lazy, whether in an opt out way or not, and don't want to do anything for themselves that they can get/take from others.

I would argue people still crave freedom, but in a way, there is a certain freedom that comes with laziness. A freedom from responsibility. Depending on the individual creature, a zoo animal may not really care about their environment being limited as long as the food is delivered and the feces removed. There is a certain freedom in that - they don't have to worry about predators, they don't have to worry about scarce resources. Of course, it only works when the zoo is well-funded by those who choose not to be a resident. The irony is that over time, in order to keep the animals placated, the condition in the cages become more and more extravagant and the costs to maintain them continue to rise. So you need more and more from those outside the zoo in order to fund it. When the zoo finally runs out of money, the outcome for the animals is not pretty.

To desire true liberty is to desire responsibility for one's self. There are many people that do not want this kind of freedom. In fact, they already believe they are free and until such time as they are confronted with it directly, you cannot convince them that they live in the cage. Even when they see it first-hand, their initial response is to ask for better zookeepers - not to be released into the wild. That is not the "freedom" they want.

But the good news is that we are fast approaching a time where the animals that want to escape will find it easier to do so (thanks to technology) and those that do not will have to suffer in deteriorating conditions. When the conditions get bad enough, even those that liked it before will try to get out. Technology will also make the zoo animals more aware of their conditions than ever before. They will learn the type of freedom they have comes with a cost. This, of course, is the optimistic viewpoint of the same situation.

 

[Bryan]

I sincerely appreciate osan's post, and agree it deserves attention. I will response in terms, language and at a level that seems to best fit the original message.

Osan, your semi-rhetorical question as to what you are missing is simple, you are missing the big picture. Many of the words you have written and the thoughts you have expressed have reverberated in my past and I finally achieved clarity when I later saw the big picture. From a certain lens, the entirely of humanity can be seen as a sad joke as you express, and one that you can give up on. It's a truly bitter pill to swallow to know that you were born into bondage, like your parents before you and their parents before them. It can go against the grain of everything you have been taught in our "rah, rah, liberty" society but that doesn't make it untrue. Given the totality of our plight it can make you think poorly of our species, I think when you get there you truly have hit rock bottom and nothing will change that except for a refocusing of ones life. Consider, at that rock bottom place you have to make a choice - you can choose to stand for humanity or you can turn your back on it. Consider that, if you can see the truth in things there is hope for yourself. Consider further that if you can see this then other humans can too and given that then perhaps there is reason to fight for your self-being and the future of mankind. There is no option to leave this planet, that certainly will be kept off the table, so the battle ground is right here on Earth. It's do or die, make or break, right here.

To be brutally honest, in reading your post I can see one underlying theme: despair. It might sound insulting for me to say this, I expect you to disagree and I apologize if that hurts but as I said, I understand your post and remind you that your thinking may be different some time down the road. I will explain some of why I say this and ask you to not despair and to consider a path that leads away from this.

Each of us is born into unique circumstances, with a unique background and personal traits which makes defining a right path forward impossible but I will share what works for me. First, accept the situation we are in, come to terms with it in all of its ugliness, study, research, seek the truth knowing it's not pretty by a long shot. Next, accept who you are, where you are and that the status-quo is not acceptable. Accept that you are human and that you are limited in what you can do, then don't just accept your humanity, celebrate it and the wonders that are provided for us on Earth. There are still so many amazing experiences one can have, things to do, and wonderful ways to be that haven't been taken away from us. Fill your life with things that make you happy, it can be an amazing journey and we each need to find ways to make this happen, this is part of the big picture. Along the way however, there is still our fight. Our freedom will not be handed to us on a platter but our resolve against the enemies of freedom must be permanent. We will not go away, we will never stop fighting. It is despair to give up on yourself, your species or the fight you know you must be in.

So the real question becomes, how do we fight? This is something that I have given great consideration to. Spending time trying to help win elections can in fact be a waste of time if done poorly or for the wrong reasons. Consider there can be two benefits to electoral politics. The first benefit is the opportunity to connect with people to deliver the message of true liberty in a way that will shift other peoples thinking. Can this work? Oh, absolutely, and consider that elections are one of the few times when many people are actually open to talking about issues so you are really just leveraging the election as a vehicle for your message. So even in losing an election there can still be smaller victories along the way. Will you be able to really connect with people in this way while phone banking? Very likely not, but does that mean you shouldn't phone bank? The answer would be, it depends upon the election and what the candidate will do once they get in office - which is the second possible benefit to electoral politics. Getting the right people elected certainly doesn't mean that we've won and we can pack it all up and go home-- not at all. Winning elections however can give a big booster shot to our message by getting a bigger stage for some of our top people that can delver the message, we can also get legislation introduced that pushes the envelope and hold other elected officials feet to the fire for their support. To not see any of our progress from elections as having payback is simply a product of despair and not seeing the big picture of the value.

Similar principles apply to our projects. Do many of our projects fail? Yes, of course, and likely some should have anyway, but others don't. Consider spending many, many hours helping on a video project to which someone later says "[this video] changed my life forever" - would you consider that accomplishing something? It did for me. We don't know yet what fruit will come out of the FSP, it's too soon to yet know. Even though we haven't won, it is despair to think that our completed projects have been fruitless and our on-going projects will bear none.

What makes a project or campaign worthy of effort is an entirely different matter, and a critically important one. Also consider there is a huge difference between "sure, I'll donate a few bucks" and "I'm quitting my job, selling everything and going all-in".

There is no perfect formula for success, there is no silver bullet that gains our freedom - if there was it would have already been done, but that's not cause to give up. As for the figurative idea of storming the castle there are both philosophical and practical reasons to find a better path. Practically speaking, could you articulate a winning solution given that you are out numbered 100,000:1, out-gunned 1,000,000:1 and out financed trillions to 1? Never mind that all of your communications and travels are tracked 20 times over and your neighbors are happy to see a local terrorist in planning be apprehended. Do you really think it would go unnoticed if plans were made here? That guideline is here for our survival, if that was our mindset or culture we'd get shut down. This mindset is not who we are anyway however because it is a critically flawed mindset because of this: we will be the ones creating victims and enemies. Creating victims is what they do, which is the real reason why this is a failed path. It is despair from a lack of ideas to think this could be a viable option.

Consider a vision that, as we are winning there will be no one left protecting the true enemies of liberty as they hide in their fake palaces, and then they can be brought to the justice of true honest and wise men for their crimes. We could still do better yet to offer peace for those who truly come to terms with their evil ways of the past, reject what they once stood for and seek repentance amongst us who want to build a morally sound society with liberty as its bedrock. I am sure there are some, and I would welcome them, we are after-all common in our beings of life.

Being an activist is a state of mind, no one is going to work 24/7 in activities towards the cause. There can be times, even extended, where you have to defer to other priorities, and there may be times when there is a poor cost-benefit to all project opportunities on the table, but these are temporary measures as the mindset of winning the fight stays rock solid. Finding the right path isn't always easy to figure out, I have struggled plenty with how to advanced this website with lots of things to do, build and organize but never with an assurance it's the best path forward even though it seems I have it figured out.

As for now, let them laugh, but the bells liberty will keep ringing louder- and they will do so right here.

 

[osan]

Most people do not want to be free: they want to be fed (or perhaps "made comfortable" is a better description),

http://freedomisobvious.blogspot.com/2011/02/fundamental-problem-for-humanity.html

Human Comfort: Challenge And Opportunity For Liberty Advocates


People want comfort. From a certain standpoint, it can be credibly stated that comfort drives the human animal more strongly than any other factor, though one must be careful when taking the idea to such extremes because he faces the risk of distorting the meaning of "comfort" too wildly. Suffice it to say that comfort is one of the truly central aspects of a human being's moment to moment existence.

In the interest of knowing better that of which we shall speak, let us once again turn to the dictionary that we may have the definition at hand. From dictionary.com:

com·fort [kuhm-fert]

noun


4. relief in affliction; consolation; solace: Her presence was a comfort to him.

5. a feeling of relief or consolation: Her forgiveness afforded him great comfort.

6. a person or thing that gives consolation: She was a great comfort to him.

7. a cause or matter of relief or satisfaction: The patient's recovery was a comfort to the doctor.

8. a state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants, with freedom from pain and anxiety: He is a man who enjoys his comfort.

9. something that promotes such a state: His wealth allows him to enjoy a high degree of comfort.

11. Obsolete . strengthening aid; assistance.

Origin:


1175–1225; (v.) Middle English comfortien, variant of confortien, conforten < Anglo-French, Old French conforter < Late Latin confortāre to strengthen, equivalent to con- con- + -fortāre verbal derivative of Latin fortis strong; (noun) Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French, noun derivative of the v.​

Note the etymological origin of the word, meaning "to strengthen", which brings us to the concept of power. In my experience, all people seek power in one form or another. Toddlers strive to walk, then run, and as they grow take on new and more difficult challenges, the attainment of each increasing their immediate personal power. Once again from dictionary.com:

pow·er [pou-er]

noun

1. ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.

Origin:

1250–1300; Middle English pouer ( e ), poer ( e ) < Anglo-French poueir, poer, noun use of infinitive: to be able < Vulgar Latin *potēre (replacing Latin posse to be able, have power).


​

One can clearly see the interplay between comfort and power. To be empowered is in some manner to be comforted.

Generally speaking, people will attach themselves to whatever it may be that brings them the comfort they seek. Different people derive that comfort in different ways. Some find it in food, others in drugs and alcohol, religious devotion, love, and even anger and hatred. Paradoxically, others are comfortable often or even only while in a state of some form of discomfort. There are many dimensions to comfort.

Emotional comfort may stem from relationships, religion, politics, etc., the latter being one of the big sources. In that context, people choose the political views that offer them the best fit for comfort in accord with their needs and desires. This often translates into truth-be-damned adherence to a set of beliefs, as is most often the case with religion, to cite another example. Comfort is, for many people, far and away more important to them than is truth . This is readily verifiable by observing how their behavior comports itself with respect to their statements regarding the place that truth occupies in their lives. One will often find that those who claim truth as ultimately significant often behave in ways that betray the claim as false to greater or lesser degrees. It may be also observed that the greater the claim of truth's significance is, the greater that degree of falsehood. If the truth threatens their comfort, they often reject it out of hand. In many cases, they will become violent and even kill to protect themselves from truths that threaten their comfort sufficiently.

When some fundamental aspect of a person's comfort is perceived as being seriously threatened, almost anything is possible in the way of a reaction. This can be readily observed in the areas of religion and personal relationships. The screaming believer, so thoroughly convinced that his "faith" is the absolute and only truth in existence will actively reject any evidence contradicting those beliefs, no matter how undeniably the facts may establish the falsehood of his belief system. Press the issue with sufficient force of logic and persistence and you may find yourself sporting a radiating shiner.

Consider the housewife whose husband stands accused of molesting their children. Perhaps as often as not the spouse will stand by her man and remain in utter, stoic denial regardless of the fact that irrefutable evidence has been presented, proving the charges without any room for reasonable doubt. Because their comfort is so heavily vested in their relationships, to acknowledge the facts presents a truth too terrible to accept, and so they hide in the comfort of their fantasies.

And so it is with political beliefs, which in many ways occupy analogous positions to those of the religious in the belief systems of people and the comfort they provide. This fact assumes particular significance when one attempts to engage in the act of altering the most closely held political beliefs of others. It is, therefore, something that must be recognized and understood by those holding dear the truths of personal liberty. Many, and perhaps even most, people fail to understand what freedom actually is. They mistake what I call "pretty slavery" for freedom and regard actual freedom as a state of chaotic and dangerous insanity - of brute anarchy where there are no rules save that of the jungle such that those with the most power rule over the rest without mercy. What they fail to see is that this precisely describes our current system to a 'T'.

The challenge, then, is to make this apparent to them, and the only way to do this with any hope of success is to discover and understand the relevant factors of comfort as they apply to those in question. One of the fundamental requirements in the method for bringing such people around to the ways of true freedom is the need to be able to identify and understand a given individual's comfort with respect to his objections to liberty. One must understand what makes such people tick - what it is that attracts them to whatever flavor of pretty slavery it is to which they cling. Without this information it is at best very difficult to change anothers' point of view, given the near-religious fervor with which some hold such opinions.

Once one has the basic understanding of the other's comfort in hand, and assuming the person to be convinced is an intelligent, honest, open-minded individual of nominal mental health, addressing and assuaging the threats to his comfort regarding his attachment to slavery becomes the first step toward the elimination of this objections to real freedom. Getting one to recognize that his version of slavery is not freedom is an uphill battle at best. If you are going to engage in such efforts, best that you proceed as well equipped as possible because you will likely have your work cut out.

Comfort is of central importance to all humanity, regardless of the fact that it takes on such wildly varying forms between individuals. We all have those things that "make us tick". Comfort is very much a two-edged sword that has both helped us and harmed us. Understanding the form comfort takes in any given person is central to understanding him and key in helping you determine what approach to take with them in your efforts to illuminate them to the beauty and virtues of freedom.

Until next time, please accept my best wishes.