Although I’m not one to have much faith in people, I do believe that it is not common for the majority of a population to desire something detrimental to their health and welfare. By and large, the majority, unless woefully ignorant or irredeemably wicked, desires that which tends to their ultimate welfare as a whole. Said Thomas Paine, “Society is created by our wants. Government by our wickedness….Society in every form is a blessing. Government at its best is a necessary evil, at it’s worst an intolerable one…” In a civilized society, people tend to work towards that which will bless them, for they tend to want things that are really good for them. The larger their government grows and the more faith they place in it, the more the wants of the people become synonymous with things classified as wicked. Thus, we put up with a government out of necessity, but not because we want it to rule over us.
However, even at the time of the revolution, the majority of people were not really involved in actively taking part in that which tends to their ultimate happiness. Said John Adams, “A third of us took up arms, a third of us were either secretly or openly loyal to the british, and a third just didn’t give a damn.” While the majority of the people (2/3rd) didn’t necessarily like the British, half of those who didn’t side with the enemy of freedom, personified at that time by the court of King George III, could not be roused to do that which was in their ultimate best interest.
As I pondered the preponderance of political apathy at this election, I realize that the trouble caused by this third looms larger today than perhaps at any prior time in our nation’s history. Mark Levin pointed out on his show earlier this week the following alarming statistic:
1/3 the people in the United States don’t pay any taxes
The practical implication of this means that 1/3rd of the people are always going to say yes about everything because they’re not paying for it and that, according to Senator Joe Biden (D-CN), 1/3rd of the people are NOT patriotic. This Troublesome Third constitutes essentially that fraction that is “either secretly or openly loyal to” tyranny, because they do NOT have the interests of the majority in mind. They are out to serve themselves. In part, this accounts for the continuity of class warfare and racial rhetoric, from which we will never be free as long as a significant number of people pay nothing for their freedom. The class warfare rhetoric will always resonate with people who don’t pay taxes.
Where this becomes a problem for the future of freedom in the United States is that so many Americans are politically apathetic. While 1/3rd of the people may take up arms, among the residual 2/3rd of the population that pays taxes, a significant portion of taxpayers have been duped also into supporting socialism under the auspices that liberals will sock it to the rich and that by robbing from the rich somehow the poor will benefit. Never forget that while liberals dress themselves up in the garb of a Robin Hood, they follow the Buccaneer Theory of Economics and YOU will get NONE of their swag. Significant portions of the populace being duped, and many of the rest preferring “wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude more than the animating contest of freedom”, among that Troublesome Third of Apathy, we find the strength to make or break the enduring Freedom of the United States.
Even more troubling is how this apathetic third finally responds. In recent weeks, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time trying to persuade the apathetic to vote and to vote as befits their ultimate individual and collective best interest. Many of those who respond to my call will ultimately vote against what is in their best interest because on TV I see a preponderance of persuasive propaganda leveled against freedom. I see more Obama ads than anything else. Unless they educate themselves and we educate them, when they do engage, they will cancel out our votes.
Our cause is in jeopardy due to the ignorance of the electorate. It falls to us to educate them, to persuade them of the virtues of freedom. We must persuade them that Agency, that God-given blessing to choose our own adventure, is the greatest gift given man in mortality, and that an heritage of freedom is the only way to maximize the possibilities for every man, woman and child on the earth. Socialism, liberalism, Marxism, fascism, ad infinitum, never work and promise only misery. Men must be free if they are to be happy. That’s why Lucifer’s plan was ultimately rejected and why a Savior was sent forth to rescue us when we make honest error in our judgment. Freedom is God’s way. It is the only way. We must teach the people this. It will require much of us, but nothing great was ever won without sacrifice. We cannot abide the tranquility of servitude over the animating contest of freedom. Like the man who first coined that phrase, give me liberty or give me death.
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