The following was a comment posted on the DailyPaul.com website in response to the article's author describing his visit to Taiwan (comment made by gunsofthepatriots):
Hi everyone, I am orginally from Taiwan, however my background is a bit complicated. I am 29 and I moved from Taiwan when I was only 10 and have since lived for 8 years in Thailand, and 10 years in the United States. I have also lived in Toronto, Indonesia and now I am in my new home in Sydney, Australia. I would like to share a little about what I think of freedom after all my travels. To me, the United States and the US Constitution is an idea and not a geographical location. The ideas of freedom and liberty are within the minds of the people that live there. I arrived in the US in 1999 for school with high hopes for a better future only to witness the 9/11 "attacks" and the subsequent attack on Iraq. Not to mention the torture carried out in the name of "spreading democracy". I have since been obssessed with finding the truth of the American Empire and what I have found has led me to leave the United States in early 2009. I am a history and philosophy fanatic so I saw the signs and tactics that propagandists use and decided it was time to move on before the inevitable arrived. The videos online of people being molested by border patrol or poilcemen are disturbing, but not surprising in a society in decline. Hitler had the secret police and the Gestapo to whip the citizens into compliance through force. If people have to spell out for you that the militarization of the police in the US is a bad thing, you have a bit more waking up and thinking to do. I was a staunch supporter of Dr. Paul at my last job in the US only to be laughed at by my Californian friends. They think I am a Republican but I told them I am neither and that I do not swear allegiance to any country or government. The only advice I can offer the frustrated Americans who can no longer stand what's happening in the US is to leave. Leave and take your ideas of freedom and talent elsewhere where they are protected. That's what I have done. I research and move to countries where I believe I have more freedom and liberty. If I ever see the government I am under ever infringe on those rights, I research and move on. In this day and age, it is simple to do but many people would cite that as difficult. Many will cite that either family or the thought of leaving their own country is hard, then I must tell them that they have not yet realized how precious true freedom is. I leave you with a few quotes from men of history.
True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs, that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions. - Machiavelli
There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. - F.A. Hayek
The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists. - Ernest Hemmingway...Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter...1935
Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. - Oscar Wilde
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. - Samuel Johnson
I don't agree that the answer is leaving (most likely a product of his passive personality-totally opposite the COTO code), but he makes some really good points about freedom.
ReplyDeleteI agree Mark.
ReplyDeleteRunning away is pointless. If you don't take a stand here, eventually this machine will just expand to any country you could run to.
And besides, why go anywhere? If you see what is happening and you don't want to fight it, just do like Rob and so many others, and embrace the GateKeeper roll. Show the establishment that you can "serve a purpose" and carve out a place for yourself on "the winning team"... then you haven't got to pack.
I think the "matrix" has been installed in every sovereign state (it's the "fashion" of the emperors without clothes). When gunsofthepatriots comes to the end of his life and looks back over the 100 or so countries in which he's lived, I think he'll realize that in order to escape tyranny, you have to escape...civilization itself. "Civilization has perfected despotism" -Alexis De Tocquevill
ReplyDelete"Hitler had the secret police and the Gestapo to whip the citizens into compliance through force."
ReplyDeleteA brief nit to pick here: unless I misunderstand you, that's not really the way it worked.
The Germans did not need a Gestapo man on every corner to intimidate people. In fact, there were not enough Geheimstatzpolezi to go around. Instead, the Germans spied on each other.
You could curry favor with the "Partei" by "denouncing" your fellow citizens to the HD... Heimatsicherheitsdienst... literally... "Homeland Security Department." Some did it to settle a grudge... some for opportunistic reasons... they turned into a "Nation of Finks."
This is important: the Germans were not "...whipped into compliance through force." They did it willingly, not knowing how "far" it was going to go. When they realized what would be their fate... as they say... "...by then, it was too late."
I agree with you completely... the ideas embodied in the US Constitution are not exclusive property to any group or region. However, to encapsulate those ideas as "freedom" and "liberty" candy-coats and short-sells the true genius of the document itself, which is this:
The authors of the US Constitution designed a "system" to settle an ancient question: the relationship between the individual and the collective... minorities and majorities. They devised a system of "checks and balances" cemented together by an INDEPENDENT judicial branch- "rule of law."
This understanding of the US Constitution is a serious problem I have with the "Paulitos" (whom I scorn) as well as the Paulistas (whom I respect). What's the difference? The "Paulitos" are "little Paulies." Personality-cult drones who smack on the US Constitution much the way a "fundamentalist" smacks the Bible: MAY have read it... but "understand" it? Nope.
The Paulistas seem to be genuinely trying to sort out the idea of "libertarianism" and what that means and how it applies. Somehow, they think kindly old Dr. Paul is their best voice. Maybe that's true. But I must confess:
Any time somebody cites Ayn Rand, I want to SHOOT them.
Waldo, while you make a great point that the German people willingly complied,- [in your final comments] keep looking for perfect gov't and you may find yourself riding the same buses as...gunsofthepatriot...
ReplyDeleteAlso a very good point, markwatterson.
ReplyDeleteI think we could agree with Jefferson's statement, "...government is at best a necessary evil, at worst an intolerable one." Is not "...looking for a perfect gov't" what the US Constitution authors were attempting to do?
I am not "looking" for a "perfect gov't." I am looking for ANY "government" AT ALL. That is, in the sense that "governments" derive their POWER from the CONSENT of the "governed," WE have no mechanism for "consent" AT ALL.
Until "elections" are free and fair and not the fake media circus they are now, there IS NO "government." As to the "bus," well... I doubt that I will survive any such "bus trip."
Talk is cheap.
Indeed Waldo, A "more perfect Union" I believe, is how the establishment characterized it. Governments derive their power from their ability to deceive, as reported by that famous Italian called Niccolo.
ReplyDeleteWe agree on our lack of a mechanism for consent, but to say this nullifys the corrupt criminal organization that enslaves us from a government role is to say that dictatorial sovereigns have no government, no?
I wish you good health, please stay off the bus.
You are exactly correct, watterson.
ReplyDelete"...to say that dictatorial sovereigns have no government..." you are right. "They" do. I am saying that I refuse to recognize the sonofabitch as a "government," but rather an "occupying power."
Thus I will tip my hat and yazzuh-nozuuh on cue... but to recognize it as a "government" by definition of what you have referred to as "liberty and freedom?" NEVER. Without "consent of the governed," the idea embodied in the US Constitution does not exist... therefore there MUST be a mechanism to measure "consent of the governed."
Nobody is EVER going to get my old ass aboard no damn "bus."
I am not a francophile, too much they do/ have done gets me spitting mad, however, they DID do well in the Resistance movement, and I suspect we all need to pay attention to that effort. A whole new underground railway needs to be considered and planned , now. small linked groups. and as much tech as can be aquired ie infra red and night work stuff, jammers can work both ways!
ReplyDeleteI too may have to do the forelock tugging, but damned if I will mean it, and Not be fighting back in any way I can manage.
strikes me as odd, that chap saying move on..hmm unless he applied for citizenship or has a LOT of money to buy residence? no one gets to stay in Aus more than a max of 12mths on a tourist/family visa, working visa maybe marginally longer, but is job dependant.
and as the shit thickens, even that option will be withdrawn. they may have sortof? shut down Xmas island immigration centre, but it could reopen pretty quick again too. Recent boatloads are going to bring the whole thing up here again.
adding disease and economic stuff, to what was just unwanted immigration is upping the stakes.
We, on the majority are NOT happy to have muslims moving in.
Ozz and Waldo
ReplyDeleteRemember, I was an official Green Party Observer in Ohio 2004.
You know, after the 2004 Bush Selection, when the election fraud was so apparent and the vast majority here simply shrugged their shoulders (I will never forgive that asshole John Kerry for that) I seriously considered moving back to Ireland. I do have the legal ability to do that.
However, I remember making a deliberate decision to stay here.
Because I realized that this, the United States was the belly of the beast. I also knew that I had a moral and political responsibility to be here, given my experiences and political outlook.
As for Franco-philes and resistance, well let me share a few thoughts.
ReplyDeleteSomeone I know was moving his Armalite (AR-15) in northern Ireland, setting up an ambush. He was walking down the street with it under his coat. Suddenly, he was accosted by a British patrol.
He pretended to be drunk, pissing against a wall. The Brits gave him shit, calling him a drunken Paddy. He tugged on his forelock in a subservient manner, muttered "Jaysus, can a man not even take a piss in peace" in a drunken slurred way.
The Brits went on and he then moved on and set up his ambush point later.
true story.
Happened in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
Oh so I've been told.
//:-)>-------
I give in:-) we don,t have issues like that, too laid back? lazy, or just blissfully unaware..
ReplyDeleteand I am truly grateful.
though I guess "en garde"
is a more sane way of being,
its a high adrenaline lifestyle.
I mean we have a beer brand called XXXX
yep, Fourex , cos they couldn't spell beer!
And yet It could happen,
someone could put a beer label in and it wins an election!
about the same cred as Bushs..
I always find it hard to think of Ireland any way but "troubles" yet it was a small area, but it got all the headlines for most of my young life.
City year is the new Hitler youth or East German Stasi. Did you watch the video I posted earlier? The similarities are stunning. Obama wasn't talking about peace corps type work when during the campaign he said:
ReplyDelete“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security goals we’ve set. We’ve gotta have a CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded. “
We know this powerful, well funded national security force will be on the lookout for terrorists ...mostly domestic. Terrorists that speak ill of the government's policies. People like us.
These kids are cult like in their love of their "leader." With very few jobs available for graduates, city year's members will most likely swell to outrageous numbers.
This does not bode well for the future of the U.S. citizen, just as it did not bode well for the Germans.
Great story Michael. How old were you when you moved from Ireland to the U.S.? I didn't detect even a bit of a brogue in you ....
ReplyDeleteI love the Irish.. such a feisty bunch. If I were you I may have stayed on the Emerald Isle ;)
Nah, let's stand up to em...ask some Very Good Questions, pull the curtains back, shine the light and insist on our freedom as human beings, because if we can't stop them with the truth, the rest of the planet will be toast and relocating could become moot.
ReplyDelete