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Paper Shredder-Freedom Analogy

Posted in Uncategorized with tags on October 5, 2011 by nathanjaye

LET’S CRITICIZE FREEDOM!!! Before I can share with you the ‘Paper Shredder-Freedom Analogy,’ I must explain a bit of human history and psychology. First, let’s start with where freedom comes from.

It all started in Ancient Greece and more specifically in the city-state known as Athens. Around 500 B.C. while art, architecture, pottery and knowledge were thriving in Athens, it unfortunately fell under tyrannical leadership. Three leaders, Peisistratos, Hippias, and Hipparchos ruled in succession, and were such greedy and unjust men that they threatened to destroy the first renaissance taking place in Athens. It wasn’t until the installation of the aristocrat Cleisthenes when the Spartan king, Cleomenes I, saw an opportunity to rid Athens of its tyrannical cycle. Soon after Cleomenes I’s suggestion to the Athenian people to overthrow the tyrant Cleisthenes, tension grew between the two city-states.

In a desperate attempt to preserve Athens from becoming yet another Spartan puppet, Cleisthenes installed the pro-Spartan archon Isagoras. The political move was strategic in nature and gave the city-state Athens more time to strategize. Behind Isagoras’s back, Cleisthenes began preaching an idea to the people of Athens, and that idea was that everyone share in political power, regardless of class or social status. This idea is what would become known as “democracy.”

The people of Athens took to this idea of democracy so enthusiastically that they were able to overthrow Isagoras, install Cleisthenes’ new reforms, and put down all Spartan attempts at restoring a new leader. The emergence of democracy helped cure a lot of the ills in Athens, and lead to a ‘golden age’ among Athenians until the rise of the leader Alexander the Great and Hellenistic culture in 323 B.C. Democracy lasted less than 150 years, but human beings knew from that point on that it was possible, and also that it was only the first important step toward freedom.
Rome came next in the pursuit of freedom, but I do not need to explain Roman government and ideas to you because we practically live there today. The system of government of the United States is so reminiscent of the Roman Republic that we even use a lot of the same terminology. Rome had a Senate, we have a Senate. Rome is a Republic, we are a Republic. Rome had two consuls elected every year by their Senate the same way our president is elected by the Electoral College (just a fancier name for ‘Senate) every four. We are Rome, so take it upon yourselves to go study up on Roman history, how they rose, how they thrived, and most importantly how it all fell apart, ushering in what we know as the “Dark Ages” in Europe.

So we can now point to two specific times in history where freedom may not have been what it is today, but rose and fell in very short periods of time. Face up to the facts: the world we live in is historically tyrannical and totalitarian in nature. The capturing of freedom by the people on Earth is a rarity, and actually one of the rarest actions throughout human history. Only three cultures in the entirety of human history have been able to completely capture it, preserve it, and uphold it. We are that third culture my friends.

If you do not know the history of America, and are not constantly pursuing more knowledge of that history, you need to. It is the single most important thing that will help you see through the lies and propaganda of the coming circle of tyrants. You also need to know the true reason why Greece and Roman culture fell in the first place, but it can very easily be boiled down to one phrase: bread and circuses.

In the late days of the Roman Republic, people had grown so comfortable and ignorant to the world around them that they only grew hungry for two things in life: bread and circuses. Quite literally, the consul candidates that could provide for the people the most bread and circuses was generally the victor each year. The elections started having nothing to do with protecting their freedoms, which was always on the razor’s edge, nothing to do with the incessant wars for power and territory that Roman leaders often pursued, but simply just bread and circuses.

If you can understand ‘bread and circuses’ then you can understand that the United States is starting to look a lot like that. Think of all the minor issues spanning from National healthcare, to abortion and even to the legalization of a plant. I’m here to tell you that these issues are only a smoke screen, much like bread and circuses were in Rome, to draw us away from our most important agenda: preserving our freedom. You have to understand how crucial this is because it ended freedom for a culture thousands of years ago. People grew so mad for bread and circuses that they were willing to even give up their freedom, just as long as they could be guaranteed more bread and more circuses. This notion led to the ‘Dark Ages,’ and if you know a bit about that, then you know that they don’t call them the dark ages for nothing.

We are falling into this madness right now in the United States as a people. This madness is consuming everything we know about politics and political freedom. This madness will truly be our end, only the dark times we undergo may be much more severe than any of us could even imagine. But you do not have to be another victim to the bread and circuses sham. I have the alternative. Be warned that it will not be easy, but it does not involve violence. This idea is what I call the non-violent, coup d’etat, ‘Paper Shredder-Freedom Analogy.’

Before you can understand the analogy, you need to realize that this crazy notion of bread and circuses doesn’t seem so crazy if you can understand a bit of human psychology. It can be explained in the workplace of almost anyone, but for the sake of argument let’s examine a carpenter. Say a carpenter has been working on a wooden chair for a long time. He gathers strong materials, he takes his time drawing it out first to get a general idea of what it will look like, then he begins building and crafting it. Now, much like anyone who does anything constructive, and much like drawing up a plan for a free system, when the carpenter feels he is finished he goes to market to sell his masterpiece. While at the market he lists the price for say only three hundred dollars, but as the day goes on a fat-cat aristocrat notices his work and is aghast. The aristocrat is so smitten, that he offers three thousand dollars for the chair instead of three hundred. Of course the carpenter is ecstatic at the offer, agrees and hurries home to count his money. Because the carpenter was only expecting to make three hundred instead of three thousand, he believes he has worked hard enough, and has obviously created his greatest work anyway, at least in value, so he decides to take a long break from working. It was hard making that chair, right? He deserves a long break, no?

The ‘Paper Shredder-Freedom Analogy’ is to suggest that there can be no breaks. We must constantly be building toward preserving and perfecting the ideals of freedom. To make it even simpler let’s look past the carpenter and refer to me right now, a writer. For instance, if I write a book and it is a masterwork, becomes a New York Times bestseller, makes me rich, and brings me fame, what is my purpose in writing another? Do I really believe I am going to top the last one? Even if I do, will people even notice, or just buy because I’m on the bestseller list as it is? I will tell you as a man who has studied literature in-depth that it is very rare when a great writer continually tries to ‘one-up’ his last work. It’s just not a part of human psychology. It was hard writing that one book, so hard that it took every ounce of strength, time and commitment that I could muster. Why should I try and write a new one that’s better, take all that time and effort, and in the end probably not even be recognized for creating a better work than the first? I’d be lying if I told you I was trying just as hard as an undiscovered writer, trying to impress the masses, as I would be as a wealthy, established writer who has already achieved master status. It’s just not human psychology.

So say I really want to though. I really want to keep continually improving my writing and have each attempt at a book be an honest hunger for success and reward. Well solving this problem is simple. When I finish writing a book, I should just throw it in the paper shredder, get rid of it and know that it happened, but have no tangible proof that it did. This is the only honest way for me to truly keep forcing myself to be better and better with each attempt. If there is no work before it, and it has been shredded completely, then I must keep striving for greatness as a writer.

This is the idea I propose for freedom. Freedom must be constantly re-evaluated, thrown into the shredder, and started anew in order to truly keep progressing in a forward motion. Why does this make sense? Because it happened in Greece, and it happened in Rome, and it took more than a thousand years to re-establish freedom. This freedom was re-established in America not because our fore fathers already possessed said freedom and only wanted to gain more freedom… that is absurd. They had a passion for it because they did not even know what it felt like to be free in the first place, the same we do not know what it means to live without freedom today in America. Our ignorance of what living in a totalitarian state really is like has started to strangle us. We are so far from understanding what a totalitarian leader even looks like that it’s frightening. We think he rises up and says, “I am taking control, and try and stop me!” He never says that, he takes it while you’re sleeping. He takes it while you’re weak. He takes it quietly, subtly, and more often than not by the permission of his own people.

Our leaders need to know that we won’t bend down, and that we won’t just hand over our rights. They need to know that they can’t do whatever they want without consequence. I am not only talking about our Congressmen, Presidents and bureaucrats running the country as a whole, but our community leaders such as policemen, town justices, mayors and so forth. We need to make them understand that we do not bow to them, but they bow to us. I hope it does not come down to having to have freedom put back into the paper shredder like times past, but if we cannot look past the bread and circuses then we will not have a choice. Our leaders will do that for us.

Peacefully protest the evils of our government. Peacefully protest our elected officials trying to re-draw the boundary lines that we have previously set for them in the Constitution. Peacefully protest the outrageous spending and draining of our economy. Make them see their injustice and make it hurt. Make it hurt before it is too late, because soon a leader much like Adolph Hitler will prey on us, and he will use our lust for bread and circuses against us for his own benefit. And believe me when I say, it will take more than a peaceful protest to make this man see his injustice, and much more than an organized gathering to make him hurt.

Start today, let’s make our government hurt!!