What is the price of freedom? Who must pay this price?

What is the price of freedom?

Who must pay this price?

I have been playing tag with several of the protest and activism groups that have come and went over this past decade or so as well as watching some of the groups beyond my local community. The story is always the same. People witness or become aware of an injustice, they form protest groups, and they march or engage in other activism regarding that issue. Very occasionally they repeal some injust law or manage to force the authorities to capitulate to some degree regarding their issue. More often than not, they get demonized by the mainstream press, infiltrated by people outside their group and with the intention of destroying their movement and hijacked into fighting against the original intent of their protesting in the first place.

Civil disobedience only works in a free and democratic society. It only works if the citizenry can recognize your sacrifice and are able to act to correct the injustice to which you are drawing public attention. That is the point of things like protesting and activism; to bring the issue to the attention of the general public. For it to work, you need the three pillars of freedom.

A society will only enjoy the level of freedom that it is willing to fight for. This fight is continuous and never ending because the forces who seek to dominate others through tyranny never sleep, never tire and never give up.

What is the price of freedom?

The price of freedom is ETERNAL VIGILANCE.

Who must pay this price?

ONLY an EDUCATED, INFORMED and EMPOWERED citizenry can pay this price.

ONLY an EDUCATED public is able to understand how the world works, how to recognize when others are trying to pull the wool over their eyes, how to draw upon the lessons of history and how to grasp the big picture regarding complex situations and put them into perspective and the proper context.

ONLY an INFORMED public will know what is going on, both in their communities and in the world around them. Without this information, we no better off than the prisoners in Plato's, "Allegory of the Cave."

ONLY an EMPOWERED public will, upon learning about what is happening and recognizing it as an injustice, have the means by which to make their will be done and correct said injustice. The public must have the power to effect change when they deem it necessary.

Without these three pillars, no society is capable of paying the price of freedom.

I spoke about civil disobedience and activism earlier to illustrate a rather disturbing trend. We are permitted to protest against specific issues. We can march against war and wall street and police brutality. But when the citizenry seek to restore one of the three pillars, they are met with a massive propaganda campaign in the mainstream media and very effective covert operations to infiltrate their group by agents provocateur. There is a similar response by the powers that be whenever we try to make society more supporting of healthy living. When we demand product labeling and reject GMO foods and big pharma poison masquerading as medicine, we invite a rapid propaganda response by the mainstream media and a criminalization of free will and free choice.

The only chance that I see for 'We the People' to throw off these chains of tyranny is to stop protesting on an issue by issue basis and unite with our neighbors, who we have been tricked through false tribalism to view as the enemy who should have been our allies all along, and to take back those three pillars upon which our freedom depends.

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Comment by Hilary Sandow on February 17, 2015 at 1:26am: DTOM, There is not a single organized group engaging in classic civil disobedience. But most of the people engaging in activism are aware that the situation is untenable, that good moral people should not put up with this situation, and so they take action through peaceful non-compliance. By most people I mean 99.99+%. One definition for someone who is protesting or engaging in civil disobedience IS that they are peaceful. It is a prerequisite. One you engage in violence, then you are not longer protesting. You are fighting. But the fighting we see happening around protests is not coming from even frustrated protesters, but from agents provocateur.

I don't agree that the protesters are responsible for the tyrants stepping up their tyranny. We have already endured more animal farm-esque incrementalism that any healthy society should have. We should have engaged in massive public non-compliance actions LONG ago. AND activism is inspiring. It is a big moral boost to talk with other people who see what you see going on in your society and in the world and who agree that it is wrong and who are on the same page about doing something about it. Activism builds social networks and support groups. Fr this alone, it is very worth while. But ultimately, large groups of protesters are EASILY infiltrated by moral worms who are paid to initiate violence against the police, so it becomes a liability that outweighs any positive response earned by the public, even on the rare occasions when your message can make it out to the public through the bought-and-paid-for mainstream press.

One major problem with violence as the solution is that there are a LOT of criminals, thugs and sickos who have no interest inn your cause who simply want to engage in violence for violence's sake. If you plan a revolution by way of force, you will spend more time dealing with them than with the minions of the tyrants. If you think the gloves come of when people protest... then by your own logic, violent revolution will would remove the gloves, the hands and the person and open the door to ALL the weapons. (Electrical power being cut, food trucks stopping, water being turned off, drone strikes, bioweapons, etc...)

The revolution must be a rLOVEution.

Tribe of Dan, I vote in every election, even the primaries. I simply vote third party or write-in. I have ZERO expectation that voting will solve the problem. NONE. However, I still do it because it forces the tyrants to steal the elections. I would rather force them to steal it rather than hand it to them. Plus, it allows me to tell anyone who is stupid enough to say things like, "If you don't vote then you have no right to voice your opinion" to SDaStFU. I also get the opportunity to talk to people who live in my area and to pass out DVDs.

You cannot sit back and say that the system is corrupt and do nothing and then expect someone else to fix it or that those who do will have your interests at heart. There is NO question that violent revolution is coming. No question. The mainstream news media can propaganda the public and create a violent emotional reaction from them about ANY subject at ANY time.

The ONLY chance we have at preventing the tyrants from controlling their opposition is by being leaders ourselves. Those of us with the power of foresight have the responsibility to offer our wisdom to our fellow citizens. (with power comes responsibility). And the more preparation we do now, the more outreach we do, the more we interact with other members of our community, the more respect we earn and the more they will listen to us when the crazy starts. We need to preposition ourselves now as community leaders so that we can direct the revolution toward the actual tyrants and not, as the tyrants would have it, towards each other. I promise you, the tyrants know that a revolution is coming. They have operatives of their own prepositioned, ready to steer public frustration and anger and violence so that we end up fighting our neighbors, our fellow citizens and our own communities.

Comment by DTOM on February 12, 2015 at 7:31am: Peaceful civil disobedience (as it is in current form with people finally awakening to the threats of GMOs, vaccinations, the state seeing you, your family and all you posess as THEIR property) will only result in the velvet glove being removed from the iron fist, and the those that enslave us openly exercising total force.

This can be seen with laws being rushed into NYC, the purchase of more arms and material for the militarized police - the enforcers and private mercenaries of the power elite.

All of the boxes of freedom and liberty - soap box, ballot box, jury box - have been exhausted, to no avail.

Bar one.

The cartridge box.

Who must pay the price?

The 3%, those that defiantly say 'NO!" and back it up with force of arms, as it always is...and those that seek total control over us.