Freedom
In the United States of America, we generally view ourselves as “free” individuals. Free to pursue our ideals of life, liberty and happiness.
This perception traces its roots back to America’s Colonial days, and the Declaration of Independence, a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation’s most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson’s most enduring monument.
Since then, it has come to be considered a major statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy, and argued that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted. It has inspired work for the rights of marginalized people throughout the world.
Servitude to Slavery
Slavery is defined as a system where one human being is legally the property of another, can be bought or sold, is not allowed to escape and must work for the owner without any choice involved. Slavery is no longer legal anywhere in the world (although the number of slaves today is higher than at any point in history, estimated between 12 to 27 million).
However, it is a lesser known fact that Slavery in the United States, and in particular racial slavery, was a gradual process preceded by forms of Servitude.
Indentured Servitude, was then a common practice in the American colonies. People bonded themselves to an owner who paid their passage to the New World. They worked until the debt of passage was paid off, often for years.
In colonial North America, farmers, planters, and shopkeepers found it very difficult to hire free workers, primarily because cash was short and it was so easy for those workers to set up their own farm. Consequently, the more common solution was to pay the passage of a young worker, who would work for several years to pay off the travel costs debt. During that indenture period the servants were not paid wages, but they were provided food, room, clothing, and training. Most white immigrants arrived in Colonial America as indentured servants, usually as young men and women. Typically, the father of a teenager would sign the legal papers, and work out an arrangement with a ship captain, who would not charge the father any money. The captain would transport the indentured servants to the American colonies, and sell their legal papers to someone who needed workers. At the end of the indenture, the person was given a new suit of clothes and was free to leave. In the 17th century, nearly two-thirds of English settlers came as indentured servants, although indentured servitude was not a guaranteed route to economic autonomy. Indentured servitude was a major element of colonial labor economics, from the 1620s until the American Revolution.
The transformation from indentured servitude to racial slavery happened gradually. It was not until 1661 that a reference to slavery entered into Virginia law, directed at Caucasian servants who ran away with a black servant. It was not until the Slave Codes of 1705 that the status of African Americans as slaves would be sealed. This status would last for another 160 years, until after the end of the American Civil War with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865.
Boiling Frogs
There is a metaphor that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. Scientifically true or not, the point is that when the changes are subtle or appear as isolated cases, they are often missed or tolerated, even if over time they become incrementally unacceptable.
And so it is, that in this perceived “land of the free”, we have come to accept the rules that have gradually been set forth from the creation of “Federal Reserve System“, the money Cartel that is neither Federal nor possesses any Reserve , to the “New Deal” and its “Social Security Act” ponzi scheme enforced by the Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the United States government and the IRS, to the “World Bank Group and IMF” policies, to the point where the “government of the people, by the people, for the people” has been replaced with the “government of the Special Interests, by the Special Interests, for the Special Interests”.
Land of the Free
When we give up our civil liberties and allow the “government of special interests, elected by the special interests, and for the special interests” take charge, the special interest elites will reap the benefit of their political investments in lobbyists and campaign contributions, at the public expense. The changes are small in steps so the average person doesn’t connect the dots over an extended time period, but eventually, the little drops grow to hurricane-size issues, too difficult to hide. Here a just a few bailouts, shifting massive private gains for elite beneficiaries, at the public’s expense:
The Savings and Loan Scandal and Bailout
Bush Bailout plan necessary to deal with crisis
Credit Crisis — Bailout Plan (TARP)
Obama administration is getting ready to transfer billions of dollars
In the business of stealing from the public to feed private interests, political titles bear no value. The government as an entity, Democrat, Republican or otherwise, is placed into power to protect the lobbyists interests, and more often than not, at the public’s expense.
Servitude to Slavery, again?
With the Social Security Act in 1935 and further Tax Reform Act of 1986, every citizen and Permanent or Temporary Resident of the United States is now issued an identification number (Social Security Number), at birth or soon after. With this number, you enter into Voluntary Servitude, committing a portion of your earnings for life, in the form of taxes. It is your employee number with the policing agencies in service of elite cartels’ private interests. Although the act of paying individual income tax is mandatory, you or your parents voluntarily applied for a number, in exchange for perceived benefits (child tax deduction, future social security benefits, etc.). And with that, you surrendered a piece of your freedom.
In the last decade since 9/11, we have continually and progressively forfeited more and more of our personal freedom, ironically, in the name of protecting our collective freedom. And the gradual rate of change is not felt dramatically on a day-to-day, so the average person doesn’t feel the impact yet.
Our submission to a life of Servitude is practically mandatory, albeit presented often in the form of “selective” options, that create an illusion of a “Voluntary Servitude“.
So are you aware of what pieces of your freedom you gave up today? Do you know who holds the contract for your servitude and when if ever you may be released and free? Do you feel the water boiling around you yet?
Artie Zahn 