IMAGINING FREEDOM

RE: "The Misesian Vision" by Lewellen H. Rockwell, Jr. www.LewRockwell.com

"It would appear that the more liberty we lose, the less people are able to imagine how liberty might work. It is a fascinating thing to behold.

• People can no longer imagine a world in which we could be secure without massive invasions of our privacy at every step, and even being strip-searched before boarding airplanes, even though private institutions manage much greater security without any invasions of human rights;
• People can no longer remember how a true free market in medical care would work, even though all the problems of the current system were created by government interventions in the first place;
• People imagine that we need 700 military bases around the world, and endless wars in the Middle East, for "security," though safe Switzerland doesn’t;
• People think it is insane to think of life without central banks, even though they are modern inventions that have destroyed currency after currency;
• Even meddlesome agencies like the Consumer Products Safety Commission or the Federal Trade Commission strike most people as absolutely essential, even though it is not they who catch the thieves and frauds, but private institutions;
• The idea of privatizing roads or water supplies sounds outlandish, even though we have a long history of both;
• People even wonder how anyone would be educated in the absence of public schools, as if markets themselves didn't create in America the world's most literate society in the 18th and 19th centuries.

This list could go on and on. But the problem is that the capacity to imagine freedom – the very source of life for civilization and humanity itself – is being eroded in our society and culture. The less freedom we have, the less people are able to imagine what freedom feels like, and therefore the less they are willing to fight for its restoration."[emphasis added]

Mr. Rockwell suggests that those of us, born after 1930 have no first hand experience with freedom, therefore if you have never experienced it, how can you miss it?

Certainly a point well made, however, some of us have known times in America when things were considerably different than now. For the most part government has grown larger and more intrusive gradually and only because of crisis such as the WWII, Cold War, The Great Society, War on Terror. Patriot Act and Obama's "change"have we noticed abrupt losses of freedom.

Today, we have a president and congress who apparently have no concept of freedom or individual rights. We are thought of in government circles as the 'masses', devoid of any individual interests and needs. The collectivist mentality and freedom are mutually exclusive.

According to Rockwell, "Obama said that when he was a young man, he learned important values from his period of community service. It helped form him and shape him. It helped him understand the troubles of others and think outside his own narrow experience.His presumption here is really taken from the playbook of the totalitarian state: the father-leader will guide his children-citizens in the paths of righteousness, so that they all will become god like the leader himself.

. . . To me, this comment illustrates one of two things. It could show that Obama is a potential dictator in the mold of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, for the presumptions he puts on exhibit here are just as frightening as any imagined by the worst tyrants in human history."

Today, Americans accept these totalitarian ideas and measures willingly, usually without protest because they have been conditioned to believe as the country grows in size or has national"emergencies" it is necessary to have more controls and government funded programs. No wonder people debate the means of a national healthcare plan rather than the need for any national healthcare plan.

Can you still imagine freedom? Can you accept the idea of an America without a centrally driven controller? Can you accept responsibility for your own well being? Do you truly want free market provided services. Does the idea of an absent father figure federal government frighten you?

In America we can choose to be free, right?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN