Has Our Government Become Tyrannical?
October 24, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the third President of the United States (1801–1809), and and founder of the University of Virginia, once said the following… “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
Let’s have a quick look at ‘tyranny’.
Tyranny: arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority; oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler.
Oppressive: difficult to bear; burdensome; exercising power arbitrarily and often unjustly; tyrannical; weighing heavily on the senses or spirit
Tyrannical government: despotic and oppressive tyrannical – characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty; an authoritarian regime; autocratic government; despotic rulers
It could be said that unless restrained, all governments devolve to tyranny. A democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.
When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics. Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler’s rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.
“Useful idiots” was the term supposedly coined by Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
Perhaps it is easier to slip into tyrannical rule of government during hard economic times or frightening and uncertain times, when a largely uniformed populace can be more easily ‘led’ and controlled, and are more desperate and willing to accept ‘measures’ in hopes of solutions to their problems.
It is fairly plain to see (if you look) some of the liberties that have been trampled upon of late by government or government agencies.
Super-computers that are profiling you by…
Listening to your phone calls in search for ‘key words’.
Reading your emails in search of ‘key words’.
Monitoring and profiling your internet activity.
Logging the products and foods that you purchase, and where you get them.
Logging and monitoring the groups that you associate with.
Monitoring your travel movements for patterns.
You may say to yourself that some of the monitoring is purely for market research and advertising purposes, but, make no mistake about it, if the data is available, it will be gathered into gov’t databases in the name of Homeland Security. Whether you like it or not, you ARE being profiled.
Government agents that are, will, or could…
Search your body / property at airports if the agent is TSA.
Search your body / property at NFL games if the agent is Homeland Security.
Search your vehicle if you look ‘suspicious’ on an Interstate road if the agent is TSA.
On a whim, declare an American citizen an “enemy combatant”, and:
Detain without charge, in secret.
Deny legal representation.
Deny the right to question his detention.
Be shipped to a foreign country for interrogation, in secret.
Be tortured, in secret.
Be tried by a military tribunal, in secret.
NOT be granted access to the secret evidence against him.
Convicted based on that secret evidence.
On top of all that, ‘the system’ is rigged to put you oppressively in debt, and to make you a slave to that debt. Our politicians are in cohort with and beholden to the Banksters and BigCorp who have built this ‘system’. Our politicians rarely, actually, represent us, at least in the true definition of representation.
So, the question is, does the government fear the people? Or do the people fear the government? The answer will reveal whether we are already under tyrannical control.
What do YOU think? Comments? More liberty take-away’s to add to the list?
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In answer to the title of the article, in a word, YES.
Truth! Next you will be quoting Franklin and the other rebel rabble that had words regarding the action needed over time to have and hold a Republic. Great subject, thanks for your efforts. Time well spent… Survive-All…
I think amlmost all government at least have the capability of becoming tyrannical. The real issue here, can they get away with it? The United States more than has some of the parameters already there, just look at the wars that it has fought. I say that a government become an evil type empire when it abandons their people and that means all citizens, not just a select few that matter. The U.S. is rapidly approaching that level of giving most U.S. citizens and residents the double bird.
Great post.
And to answer the question up top, Thomas Jefferson would roll over in his grave if he knew half of what our country is involved with these days. The debt, the gun restrictions, the wars, the UN. The list goes on.
I posed the question to some friends a couple days ago-would you rather be free or American? It made for some interesting discussion…
Just to underline the data gathering that is going on all the time in the background, I recently signed up on the Walgreens website so I can fill/refill prescriptions online. After entering my name, address and birth date it then proceeded to a page to verify my identity. The first question was to identify which of 5 cars was registered to me. The model of my car was one of the 5 on the list. Second I had to identify the year of truck model I owned, and once again the model year was one of the 5 on the list. Finally I had to check which address was one I had lived at. The street I had lived on was one of the 5 there and it was a place I lived 26 years ago. All these questions were formulated within a second after my mouse click.
Homeland security! I have an idea that is simple and not only legal but describes exactly the purpose of homeland security. Today we have hundreds of thousands of HS employees and billions of dollars in tax money available to their mission. Lets task them for 2-4 years to put 100% of their effort into finding and deporting illegal aliens from the U.S. Unarguably this is homeland security (far more true then feeling up teenagers or checking grandma’s diaper in the airports).
Reading,elsewhere, that The Declaration drafted by Jefferson was based on “The Magna Carta” and British Common Law. Why? Because of breach of contract? This timely history study brought to you by The British Accreditation Registry. Don’t believe me, look it up. While your at it look up Jefferson and the Iroquois Confederacy… Survive-All…