There was a time not long ago when the common man was nothing more than property of the king. For most of the last two thousand years, people were born, lived and died as nothing more than subjects of the ruling class. The key word being subject. All persons of common birth were “subject” to the ruler's laws, rules, mandates, and even whims and caprices. And as such, were nothing more than property of the throne. It was in this context that up until quite recently all women were nothing more than just chattel of the King.
Given the long history and impact on millions of people who were unfortunate enough to have been born with this yoke around their necks, it is even more remarkable that a group of English subjects were able to dream of themselves in greater terms.
The founding fathers of America, who came to the colonies as subjects of King George III, were no different than countless generations born under an English sovereign.
Yet, at some point the immigrants to New England, began to think the unimaginable, and question their relationship under their king. Whether it was the extreme distance from their homeland, or the remoteness and isolation of the new colonies will never be known. It may have been from having to overcome their fears and dependence upon English society as they carved out a new home from the North American wilderness. Perhaps it was from having given up all the comfort and safety of their lives back in England, and sailed to a place where there were no laws, no rules, and subsequently, no rulers. It took nearly a hundred years for the ancestors of the Englishmen who came over on the Winthrop Fleets to question their relationship under the crown. But once they did, they could never go back to thinking of themselves as subjects.
I believe that few contemporary peoples understand the explosive significance of their thinking, or the words that were drafted from that thinking.
“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
In these simple, elegant eighty two words, these brave men broke the yokes that had bound the world of men for thousands of years. And once these words were spoken few people could ever return to the mind set of being subjects of another. It was these words that were the foundation for the destruction of the slave trade a hundred years later. It was these words that have spawned the creation of over 70 other democratic nations who have incorporated them into their own government constitutions since then.
Yet, two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was written, the United States government thinks of itself as a ruler, and the citizens of the country as merely subjects. Our ruler believes that laws only pertain to subjects, and not themselves.
- Our ruler controls the elections to ensure they stay in power.
- Our ruler believes that children are chattel of the state, not the parents.
- Our ruler wants to disarm it's subjects to ensure total control of the sovereign king.
- Our ruler allows confiscation of subject's private and personal property through Civil Asset Forfeiture.
- Our ruler taxes its subjects on every item, product, service and convenience they use, and there is no practical recourse for subjects of the crown to protest or challenge these taxes.
- There is taxation without true representation.
- Our ruler invades other countries without the consent or approval of elected officials.
- Our ruler sponsors the overthrow of other governments for personal reasons.
- Our ruler sponsors the overthrow of other governments without the consent of Congress.
- Our ruler and his family, as well as the elected elites around him, personally profit from political backroom deals.
- Our ruler has weaponized all branches of government to squash and destroy any subjects that stand up against it.
It has been two hundred and fifty years since the founding fathers thought the unthinkable, and thought of themselves in greater terms.
Can you now dream of yourself in greater terms? Are you willing to give up the comfort and safety of your life in Merry Ole America, and stand up for personal freedom and individual sovereignty?