The title of this piece will likely seem extremist and very counterintuitive. Perhaps a better title would be “The American Federal Government, Question it and Keep it’s Authority in Check or it Will Become More Tyrannical and You Might as Well be Living in Some Authoritarian Collectivist European Regime of the Past.” Hmm, that’s a little wordy. It’s almost as long as one of my longer sentences.
As you may have figured out, I derived the above title from the old saying “America, love it or leave it.” That saying has always struck a raw cord with me. It is perhaps one of the most un-American thing one could say, in my opinion. You might as well say “If you don’t agree with what the federal government of this country is doing you should just bite your tongue and go along to get along no matter how tyrannical the government acts.” This attitude is the same type of attitude that helped create the darkest aspects of the communist regime in the USSR, the fascist regime in pre-WWII Germany and the socialist regime of East Germany. I would bet that it’s an attitude prevalent in modern China.
It is very difficult for government authorities, A.K.A. federal law enforcement, to do their jobs without the help of the citizenry when their jobs become corrupt and they seek to squelch political dissension. Even with all of today’s modern equipment it is very difficult to spy on all the populace without the help of jackboot kissing individuals. It takes an army of nosy busybodies to report on their neighbors. It takes a lot of fear and propaganda to create such an army. This is not the way of freedom loving people.
Furthermore, individuals who are truly worried about their personal freedoms ought to worry about the personal freedoms of others. Allow others to make their own decisions as you would want to make yours. So long as you are not treading upon the rights of others you should be allowed to do as you please, and so should they. This is as American a concept as you can get. Yes, it is okay to offer advice and discuss methods which have worked for you, yes you should be able to offer your opinion even if not asked for it, but forcing someone to do something against his will simply because you feel it’s the right way to do things is wrong. You would not like to be treated in such a way, so why would you treat someone in such a way?
