I was watching a movie called “Out of Time” with my girlfriend the other day. The premise of the movie is that when a person turns 25 they only have one year to live. That year’s worth of time is recorded on some sort of a scanner on their forearm which gives them a second by second countdown on how much longer they have to live. In this world time is used as currency. You buy things with your time and you are paid in time. The main character, played by Justin Timberlake, is a poor man who lives his life with only hours and minutes left to play with. He must race from work and collect the debts owed him as fast as he can to keep time on his clock.
While most of the people in the movie live as Justin does, there is am elite group of people who have centuries (or more) on their clocks. They live in a special area and keep their distance from the poor underclass.
Well, Justin gets his hands on a lot of time and starts a revolution against the rich in the name of equality.
After the movie I asked my girlfriend what she thought of it. She said she liked it, but didn’t think I did because it was kinda socialist in its message.
This disturbed me.
While the movie did have a collectivist theme to it, the people were also being subjected to an oppressive regime. Modern American Conservatives are not pro-tyranny, we are much more opposed to it than any other group around. It comes back to the misconception liberals have that conservatives are against helping people.
If a people are oppressed by rules that favor a few at the expense of the many, we are against it. If people are expected to live their entire life in the class they were born, we are against it.
Personal freedom is the rallying cry of our side. Regardless of what the left wants to claim, dependence on the government is not some new shiny idea. It is the oldest idea in the book. It doesn’t matter if the people are called Serfs, Slaves or Recipients, it is the same thing.
Our founders championed the idea that each man is his own sovereign. That within each man is the ability to decide what is best for himself. They were the true Liberal Progressives of our political system. They believed that the British system of exploiting their colonies and underclass was wrong, that no office or social placement should be ordained by birth. No man who was born in America should be forced to serve the interests of an Englishman for no reason other than that the Englishman was born a lord.
Our founders did not create a perfect system and there were some glaring holes that had to be corrected through out time. But they began a process that had never been undertaken in human history, that of an entire continent ruled by the willfull agreement of its inhabitants. That each person is entitled to a voice or position in his government and not only did they insist that man could be trusted with such rights, but they claimed that these rights were natural, self evident and inalienable. Since then we have proven that man can indeed be his own master, that a man doesn’t need someone to tell him what to do in order for him to live.
These rights do not stem from the government that recognizes them, but from the people that recognize the government.
We should embrace the label of Extremist. We are extreme. Personal liberty is the most radical political thought that man has ever conceived. This is why it has been so rare through out history. For each man who desires liberty, there are many more who desire power.
Our current President brags that America is the land of big ideas, and he is right. When our nation was founded we were on the extreme edge of the planet. Since then, our system has become common place through out the entire world. Nowadays there are countries that brag about doing things our way better than we do. Our nation has been a champion of freedom through out the world and has succeeded far greater than our founders imagined we would.
We are a nation of big ideas, but big ideas do not end with dependence on the government, nor do they come from the government. The big ideas that have changed this nation came from normal men and women, those people who under more standard systems of government would have been kept down and ignored by those in charge and most likely labeled a troublemaker.
The ideas pushed by the left are not big ideas. They are small and one dimensioninal. It is not innovative to expect the government to handle every problem you face, it is reactionary. A government- centered society does not look kindly on “outside the box” thinking, it expects all thoughts to fall in line with the official doctrine.
Obama is correct when he attributes our success to our government. He misses the point, though. It is not through our government’s actions, but rather its inaction that we have become who we are. We are great because we have been left to our own devices to plan our lives, not the central planners in Washington or our local lord of the manor. The Government needs to stop trying to plan on how to make people’s lives better and let the people do that for themselves. The problem we face, however, is that some people expect the big ideas to come from the government.
The Left has taken many forms in its battles with personal freedom. Aristocrats, slave masters, planners, religious leaders and now bureaucrats. In our recent history they have shed their weapons and their whips and taken up the softer side of tyranny. Instead of forcing people to obey, they bribe them. They pride themsleves on their good intentions of healing the sick and feeding the poor. They are like a person with Munchausen Syndrome who doesn’t realize it. Through their good intentions they create the sick and poor, so they can feel better by trying to help them… and in the process create another generation of dependents. Good intentions do not feed people. Good intentions lead to dependence on good intentions.
They have also tried to incorporate stories such as Robin Hood into the myth that they are fighting for the poor, however by doing so they betray their ignorance of history. Who were these rich people Robin Hood stole from?
The Manor Lords and the Church leaders he stole from did not become rich because of their ability or innovation (Which is how people become rich today) They were rich because they exerted absolute power over the average person. Abusing and swindling the citizens of the nation is how these people came to control the money they did. Robin Hood fought the same fight that George Washington or Abraham Lincoln did. Fighting for the right of every person to have control over his destiny and fruits of his labors.
The Left tries to spin history so that it alines their causes, but the facts show that people who wish to use power to control peoples lives are on the wrong side of history.
In this country the Left has been busy for decades creating a tricky pyramid of dependence in this country. They promise help to the poor at the expense of the middle class, the middle class fears that they are heading towards poverty so they blindly support the programs that are pushing them towards poverty so that when they get there they will be supported.
Instead of lifting people up they push people down.
This is where all stories of oppression coincide, whether it be Robin Hood, Out of Time, Animal Farm or the real life examples of the Soviet Union and its kind. Even if poverty is equalized, there will still be masters. In a more corrupt system, the more corrupt will thrive.
Personal freedom is the goal of the modern conservative. This freedom is under assault from the programs which reduce personal responsibility by replacing it with dependency.
Paul Ryan and extremists such as him are not advocating the elimination of social programs. They are pushing for the reform of these programs to include methods that increase personal liberty and independence. To teach a man to fish, not require others to fish for him, is the objective.
Just as in the movie where people sold minutes or hours of their lives for some momentary happiness, so the Left has bribed the current generation to sell their rights for empty promises of happiness.
The true tyrants are not those who seek to restrict the gift giving from the public treasury, but those who promise even greater gifts to those who will elevate them above the masses they desire to rule over.
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