Constitutional Libertarianism

Constitutional Libertarianism

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sliding away from our self sufficient and independent selves.

To be completely independent, in all sense of the word, we would have to be entirely self sufficient.  Meaning, we would have only what we could grow, kill and make in the region we are in, with the resources available to us.

That's not the ideal of "living good" that most people think of.

It's actually a pretty meager existence.

Trade and barter is actually what made our lives "more" than what they were.

Different people's skills, abilities and the resources available to them where they are make having things we aren't so good at making, or don't have the resources to make, obtainable.

But, with the modicum of trade people had accessible to them, even into the modern commerce world that the train ushered in, people were by and large still mostly self sufficient.

Very few could afford to be more consumer than provider.

We will take note that when most people were more self sufficient, people were more likely to be independent and very much in favor of laws that supported individuals rights, individual freedoms and respect for an individual's right to own property.

In the century or so since then, as people have become more consumer than provider, they have become more dependent on others to provide for them.  This has had a dramatic impact on how people see government and it's role. 

People now want to have more group protections and the individual, the independent minded, the self sufficient and the providers must be cracked down on and forced to give up theirs for the good of the group.

Through all of this, those that are the brokers, the inspectors and authority figures (the government) have gained more power than they have ever had before and they are re-inventing themselves as a separate, ruling class in order to be the nanny, the parent, the arbitrator of goods, services and general conduct of those it provides for.

This is what consumerism and socialism bring.  Dependence and a relegation to a second class citizen.  Where the wealthy and the ruling class work to keep access to authority and government in the reach of only a select few.

Where is the tipping point? Where did the balance truly begin to fall in favor of dependent consumerism and is it too late to tip the scales?

I don't think it's too late.  I do think we are approaching a critical point in the next 20 years that will determine if we start moving back towards independence and self sufficiency or we are hopelessly and irrevocably become something completely opposite what the framers of the Constitution envisioned those many years ago.

I do know that if the latter happens, there will be another civil war in this country making the first civil war seem like a drunken argument.

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