Whither Free Will?

free will n. 1. The ability or discretion to choose; free choice. 2. The power, attributed esp. to human beings, of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by necessity. ~ The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, c. 1982

Free will has vanished in America . It was surrendered to something that is insidious, invidious, and very pervasive today: slavery. This nefarious interloper usurped the God-given rights of sovereign individuals and replaced them with the Welfare/Warfare State, the politically correct religion of the 21^st century.

Statism has looted millions of Americans and has slowly reduced them to mere slaves. These slaves have only one function: to produce tax revenue. They also have only one right: the right to remain silent on their way to jail, but the Supreme Court just eroded Miranda, with even more erosion expected to follow later this summer.

Some readers are saying, 'You must be joking, right?' If only that were the case, but it's not. This nation is inhabited by slaves, yet the majority of them will vehemently deny being one, for many reasons, all of them specious. They prefer to believe something else. They prefer to ignore what they see happening around them on a daily basis. They prefer the illusion of freedom to the reality of their own indentured servitude to the State. They prefer the illusion of safety and security to the shock of seeing (or being) the next victim of crime or terror.

They will tell you how good they have it compared to the starving masses in Africa . They will tell you all about the great private school that their children are attending while they also fork over their 'fair share' of the annual $8000 per-child cost to send everyone else's children to failing public schools. They will brag about their income tax 'refund' while rationalizing that they got a good deal by surrendering only 40% of their gross income to the State. They will oppose income tax cuts 'for the children' while dooming their grandchildren to slavery for life to pay off the huge and growing federal debt.

These slaves are deluded and unconcerned and they just can't wait to vote again to guarantee even more of the same in the future. Just like punch-drunk boxers, they continue to crawl back into the ring, oblivious to the fact that their tenacity only ensures more abuse by the State.

They not only watch 'The Simpsons,' they agree with Homer when he says, 'Marge, the reason we have elected officials is so that we don't have to think.' To them it's not a joke; it's what they believe. Some might say that is their choice, that these slaves are exercising their free will, but they are wrong because these slaves are ignorant of the truth: surrendering their free will is what made them slaves in the first place.

These slaves are no different than any others throughout history; they have no free will because slavery and free will are mutually exclusive. Yet they claim free will and vehemently deny being slaves. They will tell you that they are proud to pay their income taxes, that they would never consider cheating the State out of 'its money,' and that they would gladly report anyone who isn't paying their 'fair share' to the IRS.

These slaves are not only dangerous, they are dooming this nation. They will gladly support any candidate who campaigns on a platform of safety, homeland security, a large standing army, global interventionism, nation building, saving the world for democracy, leaving no child behind, looting the wealthy, rewarding the poor for being poor, or locking up 'criminals' who ignore the State's insane drug laws.

Slaves in denial are living a lie, one that they believe out of ignorance. That is the problem, but it also provides the solution. Two years ago I wrote, 'If you feel like a slave, it's because you are.'

A corollary is, 'Denying that you are a slave doesn't mean that you are free.' It's a matter of education. The Statists successfully used public education to indoctrinate students into believing that they are inferior to the State, despite the Founder's declarations of the supremacy of sovereign individuals.

Only through education can this Orwellian groupthink be reversed. Only by exposing as a lie the popular fiction of free will among slaves can freedom prevail. Only by finally recognizing and admitting the truth can former slaves become sovereign individuals, answering only to Providence . Then, and only then, will the State finally be relegated to its proper place in history as a footnote of tyranny imposed upon sovereign individuals ' after they surrendered free will to slavery.

That eventuality will require fundamental changes, including the abolition of democracy due to the inevitable tyranny it produces, the abolition of politics in general and voting in particular, the abolition of political correctness due to the self-imposed collective slavery that it requires, and the complete acceptance of free will ' the power to make free choices unconstrained by external circumstances or by necessity, as previously defined by agents of the State.