What Sam Adams Would Think of the Current US
…and what he would prescribe
by Bill Huff
by Bill Huff
DIGG THIS
"Democracy
is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve
to get it good and hard." ~ H.L. Mencken
America is
a majority being ruled by a corrupt venal minority. We may have
been taught that we are under a government "of
the people, by the people, for the people." But our original
Republican principles and laws are straining to keep us from careening
toward the precipice of Absolute
Democracy.
What happens
when the Common Man meets Sam Adams?
If you were
to Google
"Sam Adams" you might get the impression that America
is a little more interested in beer than liberty – at least by one
level in the search results. The original Sam Adams was not a tea
teetotaler. George
Washington was a purveyor of fine rye whiskey. Yet, one came
to be recognized as the Father of the American Revolution and the
other the Father of his country. Neither was a common man per se.
But both believed with every fiber of their being that the common
man should live in freedom – enough to risk being hung by George
III.
Sam Adams was
the kind of person feared most by tyrants. He was the one, who,
like the prophet Nathan,
would speak the truth to power regardless of the consequences. He
incessantly agitated for Revolution.
Adams was also smart enough to avoid being murdered by the British
before he could foment his Revolution – quite a feat when one considers
that the enemy was everywhere around him [just like today] and looked
almost exactly like him. Mainly,
he was the type of writer and orator who could make the common man
understand the "real deal." Obviously he was prone
to self-replicate. George III may have been crazy but he had the
prescience to know what one man like Adams might accomplish.
How does
the Common Man get to know Sam?
Since my days
in the Navy I have had scant experience with alcoholic beverages.
I wouldn’t know one beer from another. Wine is still a mystery to
me. I prefer grape juice so far. But I do know something about bottled
water. There is an annual International
Water Tasting in West Virginia, and I have been there to experience
it and learn the differences between all kinds of water; bottled,
foreign, natural spring water, municipal, sparkling, etc.
A water tasting
is not unlike a wine tasting. Trained participants take a bite of
a soda cracker between samples to reestablish a baseline taste in
their mouths. Then they evaluate each one in a double-blind taste
test, writing down their impressions. This is all quite serious
and training is provided by Arthur
von Wiesenberger, who is, perhaps, to the world of water, what
Julia Child was to that of fine cuisine. A jury of 12 tasters
is typical.
The differences
between a heavily chlorinated municipal water and Perrier are not
so subtle. But with a little training from Arthur, tasters quickly
become adept at differentiating between very similar entries in
each category. The soda crackers help immensely.
Any ordinary
citizen can get to know Sam Adams in a hurry if he has a frame of
reference that can be trusted – and he is given the necessary Media
and Education. Right now he is getting a taste of tyranny and government
corruption. He is being told that "the rules" he was playing
by, are not only changed, they are now permanently in flux without
Any accountability. The MSM and Academe are locking ranks to woo
all of us back into complacency. But what have they to offer us
now? The more they try to pretend and prop up this regime and its
corrupt paradigm, the more ridiculous they make themselves. Send
in the Clowns.
In times such
as these, with
the incestuous relationship between the Federal Reserve and the
"government" hanging out all over the place, it would
be far better for all of us to read Sam Adams and company than to
listen to the Siren Song of Obama or his bankster handlers. To Sam,
English Monarchy was the focus of tyranny, to
Rothbard, it was the State: "…nothing more nor less than
a bandit gang writ large."
Our soda cracker,
our baseline, can be almost anything but the establishment
media or government-controlled or funded education. In short, any
medium that is entirely uncritical of corrupt government is of little
use to anyone who loves liberty. So we all need exposure to Quality
Alternative Information – Alternative Media – Alternative Education.
A few sites
I suggest: LEXREX.com, Antiwar.com,
WarIsARacket.com, Mises.org,
JamTheCulture.com, LewRockwell.com.
At LEXREX.com
I have posted a compendium entitled "The
American Ideal of 1776," where we can go for free and get
his liberty baseline reactivated from time to time. We can bite
off a piece; ruminate a while, and go back for more whenever we
are ready. Spaced
repetition is the key. In addition I have recently made an Audio
CD of "The Law" by Bastiat – so the usually busy American
family can listen while they work, drive or play. By the way, if
you don’t think you’ve been brainwashed – it worked. The key is
to take over the task of auto-brainwashing.
If you don’t know the power of Bastiat you are in for a refreshing
drink indeed. Read
it free here.
"The
Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude"
by Étienne de La Boétie is also of great value
as we continue to transform the common man into the not-so-common
man. The edition linked above includes an excellent preface by Murray
Rothbard.
We should get
enough of a foundation in some of the previously mentioned sources
so that you can refute any argument coming from Left, Right or Center.
Then sample what’s out there and compare it to our own well-digested
compendium of liberty. At first we will probably need to spend more
time with the primary source documents of our original American
political philosophy. But after we really get to know "Sam"
– we become more and more dangerous to tyrants and sycophants of
any kind – in any place or time. Remember, if what you are reading
is not critical of the status quo you should be reading more of
something else.
 As
I have said before, watch Ron Paul. He takes the argument away from
his opponent and tries to direct the discourse to sound political
doctrine – and especially sound economics and the Constitution.
Obviously you can’t do this within the controlled Media. You must
become as Guerilla-like
as Ron Paul or Sam Adams. It’s quite interesting and entertaining.
For instance, go into the grocery store, and, when you are ready
to pay, ask the clerk if she takes "coupons." She will
usually say, "Sure!" and ask you, "What kind do you
have?" Then pull out some Federal Reserve Notes [commonly but
erroneously called "dollars"] and offer them to her. Many
times she will be too tired or bored to engage you. Occasionally
you will stumble across a budding libertarian. "It only takes
a spark to get a fire going." Think back to the seemingly insignificant
events that added up to your own Epiphany.
We are not
so used to gleaning from what we read as they were back in the 18th
century. But consider well [chew thoroughly] the words of Sam Adams
below in one of his most famous quotes:
If men, through
fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce or give
up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and
the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation.
The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is
not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily
become a slave. ~ Samuel Adams
The King, on
realizing just how dangerous Sam Adams had become, assigned him
the appellation: "The Grand Incendiary."
Sam also said:
It does not
require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority
keen to set brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.
Ron Paul relates
so well to ordinary citizens because he honors and respects the
common man as did the best and brightest among the Founders
and Framers. He is disposed to explain and teach, and provide
a consistent example. He is worthy of emulation. Join him in the
Campaign for Liberty.
Historically,
Liberty is The Road Less Taken:
The spirit
of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt,
our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor,
and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated
that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis
is while our rulers are honest and ourselves united. From the
conclusion of [their] war [for independence, a nation begins]
going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every
moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore,
and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves but
in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting
to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore,
which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of [that] war
will remain on [them] long, will be made heavier and heavier,
till [their] rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion. ~
Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. (*) ME 2:225
According to
Jefferson and others, and consistent with his words above, it is
clear that we have no choice but to learn how to educate the common
man and equip his mind for liberty. He is becoming more aware of
the abuse of power right now. It’s up to those of us who know something
about liberty to offer him a timely taste of it.
Homework
Jefferson and
Madison introduced a resolution at a meeting of the Board of Visitors
of the University of Virginia, to recommend a short list of works
every American should study as "embodying" the core American
principles:
Whereas it
is the duty of this board to the government [of the United States]
under which it lives, and especially to that [of Virginia] of
which this University is the immediate creation, to pay especial
attention to the principles of government which shall be inculcated
therein, and to provide that none shall be inculcated which are
incompatible with those on which the Constitutions of this State,
and of the U.S. were genuinely based in the common opinion: and
for this purpose it may be necessary to point out specifically
where these principles are to be found legitimately developed
. . .
The list:
- "George
Washington’s Farewell Address [which, alone, could have prevented
most of the dialogue/diatribe about our present obsession with
Iraq and delusions of empire];"
- "The
Federalist Papers [considered to be written at a reading level
that surpasses our present-day ‘erudite’ PhDs];"
- "The
Declaration of Independence;"
- "The
Virginia Resolutions of 1799 [one of two important documents
protesting the first encroachments by the federal government on
States’ and citizens’ rights];"
- "Essay
Concerning the True and Original Intent of Civil Government"
by John Locke, and
- "Discourses
Concerning Civil Government" by Algernon Sydney [this
writing was used as evidence against him for which he was ultimately
beheaded].
November
19, 2008
Bill
Huff [send him mail] is a
Classical Libertarian and proprietor of LEXREX.com
and JamTheCulture.com;
a former public school music teacher turned home schooling advocate;
a US Navy veteran, and host of WarIsARacket.com.
He
is available as a guest
lecturer or for interviews on talk radio.
Copyright
© 2008 Bill Huff
Bill
Huff Archives
|
