Saturday, August 12, 2017

Liberty experiment failed

(This is a guest post, written by someone who prefers to stay anonymous. I don't usually do this, but I made an exception in his case. All opinions expressed in the main body of the post are his.)




It is with much sadness, sorrow, and regrets that I realize that our great experiment has failed; Our fleeting Liberty has been forever lost.

It lasted a total of 6 Years, 6 Months, 16 Days.

Here are the facts that few Americans even know. (Quoted text from various American History websites which I won’t name. The interested reader will look them up for himself. I fully expect nobody will bother to do so.)

“The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, on November 15, 1777. However, ratification of the Articles of Confederation by all thirteen states did not occur until March 1, 1781

“Until the new Constitution was ratified, the country was governed by the Articles of Confederation. The document was tailored to a newly formed nation made of states acting as independent countries, and it quickly became clear to America’s leaders [politicians] that future stability [their power] required a stronger, more centralized government. New York’s Alexander Hamilton thus led the call for a constitutional convention to reevaluate the nation’s governing document. The Confederation Congress endorsed his initiative, and representatives from all 13 states were subsequently invited to convene in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787, to participate in the convention.

“The initial purpose of the Convention was for the delegates [a group of greedy, ungodly and powerful men] to amend the Articles of Confederation; however, the ultimate outcome was the proposal and creation of a completely new form of government. On September 17, 1787, the convention concluded with the signing (by 38 out of 41 delegates present) of the new U.S. Constitution. Under Article VII, it was agreed that the document would not be binding until its ratification by nine of the 13 existing states.

“Hamilton and James Madison [two of the worse enemies of Liberty this nation has yet seen] led the lobbying efforts for votes in favor of ratifying the Constitution. With assistance from [traitor to Liberty] John Jay, they produced the 85 essays known as “The Federalist Papers” that explained and defended how the proposed new government would function. The essays were published in newspapers nationwide and were pivotal to securing ratification.”

[The anti-federalist papers were ignored by most people because they didn’t understand they were being led astray. Even now that our Liberty is almost gone, still most people won’t even read them! Even now that these papers are digitized and made into audio files, few Americans bother to listen to them!]

It’s anyone’s guess if The Articles of Confederation would have secured Liberty on these shores. It’s impossible to know what could have been.
The exact dates of ratification of the new constitution are listed below, but they really don’t matter. My statement of “6 Years, 6 Months, 16 Days” above assumes the date when these evil men started us on our plunge to tyranny.

Once the enemies of Liberty set their jaws to destroy that great gift that 56 brave men gave and lost their “Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honors” to secure, all was lost. (The actual length of time from the Articles of Confederation’s ratification till the ratification of the new constitution was 8 Years, 3 Days if anyone cares.)

“After ratification, Congress set dates for the first federal elections and the official implementation of the Constitution. Elections were set to take place on Monday, December 15, 1788, to Saturday, January 10, 1789, and the new government was set to begin on March 4, 1789.”

History buffs (and those fearful of Liberty) would drag out the Connecticut Compromise, but it was all fluff to trick people to put into effect this new tyranny. The reasons the common man went along with this anti-liberty plan was mainly because the common man just wants to live free, mind his own business, to make a life for himself, to raise a healthy family, and to live his life in peace and prosperity if he can.

Fast forward to the 1930’s-1940’s…
“Martin Niemöller, a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps said

First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

“The quotation stems from Niemöller's lectures during the early postwar period. Different versions of the quotation exist. These can be attributed to the fact that Niemöller spoke extemporaneously and in a number of settings. Much controversy surrounds the content of the poem as it has been printed in varying forms, referring to diverse groups such as Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Trade Unionists, or Communists depending upon the version. Nonetheless, his point was that Germans—in particular, he believed, the leaders of the Protestant churches—had been complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of people.”

One of the most important tenants of the new constitution, the prohibition of ex-post facto laws, is so important it is listed twice in this document.

“An ex-post facto law (corrupted from Latin: ex-post facto, lit. 'out of the aftermath') is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law.

This is an important law because… “It's a law that makes an act criminal, even though the act was lawful when it was committed or it can be a law that inflicts a harsher punishment than was permitted when the act was committed.

............................................

And this is as far as my guest poster, "TFF", got before losing interest and moving on to other things.
I agree with him that ex-post facto "laws" are utterly despicable.
He invited me to finish this essay for him, but I have a hard time expecting honestly or integrity from government. "What do you expect? It's government!" So I can't really work up the interest to put in an honest effort to do this justice.
But he asked if I would share this, so his effort would be recorded somewhere. I am pleased to do so.

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The (free) market and Capitalism

I don't usually write "free market" anymore, just "the market", because if it's not free, it's not the market.

"The market" just means voluntary trade without coercion. Government "laws" make a market impossible-- although you can still create a mostly-"free" market through the Black (or Gray) Market.

"Capitalism" is simply the market plus the act of re-investing some of the profits ("capital") back into the market. A true capitalism is impossible under a government (due to the impossibility of a real market coexisting with government), although approximations can exist.

It is possible to have a non-capitalist market if you make no profit, or put none of your profits back into the business (and don't use that money to start another business, either). This will probably be a short-lived dead end, though.

Capitalism is not about "hierarchies", although there is nothing wrong with voluntary hierarchies.

It has nothing to do with exploitation, even though exploitation can happen in any arrangement.

Anarchy isn't anti-capitalist, unless "capitalism" is misidentified and defined incorrectly. Socialism dishonestly posing as "anarchism" is anti-capitalism because socialism is anti-property rights, and you can't have a market if you aren't allowed to own and use property.