Do we really have any say in what happens in our nation or are we pawns in a bigger game whose ending has already been written?
I believe that in so far as our government is concerned there is always hope or as poet Charles Bukowski wrote “a spark can set a whole forest on fire.” Our country may be in deep trouble but there is still something that can be done to remedy the problems. And, there is no better time to act than the present.
Socialism never delivers what it promises. Never! The fantasy utopia of total equality amongst people and total government support from cradle-to-grave, is impossible to sustain for any length of time. It has a voracious appetite and must take increasingly more from the achievers to give to the non-achievers until they are sucked dry and there is nearly nothing left. Socialism delivers only equal misery and equal despair, It takes away the individual’s incentive to excel, to go the extra mile, to reach for the stars, while rewarding mediocrity.
Socialism is coercive since it only works if everyone is playing in the game. Those that don’t want to play must be forced, or as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and others did, exterminated.
Viktor Suvorov, a Russian history writer, said that “True socialism, in which everyone is truly equal, does not just resemble a prison – IT IS A PRISON. It cannot exist unless it is surrounded by high walls, by watchtowers and by guard-dogs, for people always want to escape from any socialist regime, just as they do from a prison.”
American socialist Norman Thomas, six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America, chillingly predicted, “The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
Well that day is now. Fear, apathy and escapism will not carry the day. It is within our power to make a difference and seek corrective measure. Yet, it is not merely that we should make a difference; rather, we are compelled, required, if you will, to attempt in a nonviolent way to make a difference. But we must always be willing, if need be, to stand and fight.
The old African proverb “even an ant can harm an elephant” speaks to the power of the people to stand against even the mightiest of opponents. The thick-skinned elephant is impervious to most insects and can trample countless ant colonies with its massive form. Yet a single ant will drive an elephant made if it crawls into his trunk. If a single tiny insect can create such chaos by targeting this vulnerability, image what an army of ants, or a nation of dissenters, could achieve.
Remember, one person is but a mere irritant, three people a movement. Freedom is never free – there is always a price to be paid and a sacrifice to be made. There is no easy way. As abolitionist Frederick Douglass remarked during his 1857 speech:
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who wants crops without plowing up the ground; the want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
