Our home is overrun with family today.
Aunts, uncles, grandparents, mothers, fathers, and a gaggle of kids running around the yard, playing tag and climbing trees.
We have plenty of beer in the fridge, most of it from a local brewery, but I threw a six-pack of Coors Light in the back for my uncle who refuses to drink “fancy beer.”
We’ll nosh on hamburgers, Polish sausages, homemade sauerkraut, and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables from our farm. The strawberries are in abundance this year, so we also have four strawberry pies cooling in the fridge.
Tonight, we’ll watch the fireworks over the lake and talk about the good old days, when my grandfather used to steam bushels of crabs while the rest of us feasted like royalty.
I’m not going to lie. I do love Independence Day.
Of course, it’s not just about cookouts and family reunions. It’s also about, well, independence and the fight against tyranny.
Get Fired Up!
Last year, I read a very interesting article from Arvin Vohra, the former vice chair of the Libertarian National Committee.
There’s one paragraph in particular that really hit a nerve for me.
Check it out:
The 1776 revolution was perhaps finalized with guns, but the true battle was a battle of ideas. The rejection of the divine right to rule, the principle of consent of the governed, the repudiation of taxation without representation were the ideological battles of the time. Today, we continue to fight these vital ideological battles — the principle of self-ownership, the rejection of the preposterous notion of government protecting us from ourselves, the repudiation of the idea of perpetual military involvement in foreign civil wars, the full-scale opposition of every part of the welfare state.
There’s so much truth in that one paragraph that I made sure to revisit it again this year so I could share it with family and friends in an effort to rekindle the internal fire many of us have lost.
The fire that tells us we are not property.
The fire that tells us we are not passive observers of oppression, but fearless and indignant freedom fighters that oppose the despotism that was written about, so eloquently, in the Declaration of Independence — despotism that sadly still exists today.
I’m talking about the fire in us that causes us to reject socialist policies that are becoming more and more popular in this country by those who promote theft disguised as “debt forgiveness” and income equality by force.
I’m talking about the fire that makes us demand honest free markets, where free trade flourishes on a global scale, without the heavy hand of government dictating who gets access to these markets and who doesn’t.
I’m talking about the fire that causes us to rise up against those who wish to deny personal sovereignty.
243 years ago, independence was declared. Yet here we are today, in many respects, still fighting for some of the same basic, fundamental rights every person in this country has been promised.
The Illusion of Freedom
The reality is that nearly all of our actions are monitored and controlled by a small group of lawmakers who, for the most part, believe it is their job to decide how we live, who we do business with, how we spend our money, what we put in our bodies, and where we can travel.
Yet there will be no uprisings.
There will be no declaration of independence honored by the so-called protectors of our Constitution, and there will be no declaration of independence fully supported by the masses, many of whom are completely satisfied being complacent with just the illusion of freedom. And really, that’s all it is these days, anyway. An illusion.
You see, in a world where the basic fundamentals of freedom and liberty were honored, there would be no federal income tax. There would be no restrictions on where you can travel or who you may invite to your home.
In a world where the basic fundamentals of freedom and liberty were honored, I would not need permission from the government to grow certain plants or use cannabis to treat my anxiety.
In a world where the basic fundamentals of freedom and liberty were honored, there would be no government theft of property.
There would also be no conditions on free speech or the ability of the media to question and report on government actions that put our personal safety and health at risk.
There would be no prohibition of sex work or required permits to braid hair, teach yoga, or become a locksmith.
In a world where the basic fundamentals of freedom and liberty were honored, the practice of government spying on U.S. citizens would be abolished.
In a world where the basic fundamentals of freedom and liberty were honored, I wouldn’t have to be so pissed off on a day that we should be celebrating independence instead of questioning its very existence.
The bottom line is that we’ve lost our way.
As a nation, we’ve traded liberty for dependence, and we’ve traded freedom for subjugation, because it’s just easier that way. But make no mistake: With such complacency comes subordination. And this is the fertile ground in which tyranny thrives.
Today, it’s excessive taxation, bans on food and medicine, restrictions on travel, and invasions of privacy.
What will it be tomorrow?
Just something to ponder tonight while you watch those beautiful fireworks lighting up the night sky to remind us of the beauty of real independence.
Happy Independence Day!
To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth…
Jeff Siegel
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Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor’s page.
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