Misinformation, a State of Ignorance and the Tenth Amendment: Shall Freedom reign supreme?

Every day someone dies, and yet it seems when someone dies in this country from a gunshot everyone gets all upset. Little do they understand as they stand there reading, watching, or listening to the news of yet another mentally deficient person who went on a shooting rampage and killed three people, little do they understand that the burger and fries they are stuffing in their face is surely contributing to more deaths than all the guns combined in this country. So is it the fault of gun owning freedom loving law-abiding citizens (who by the numbers account for less than 1% of ALL deaths in the United States) Maybe it is the fault of those liberal left wing people who just love to exercise their freedom of speech?

Misinformation and a state of ignorance, these are two principles that without fail many of us can abide by. Misinformation worked for communism and Nazism, both of these philosophies were types of Socialism! In both cases (and continuing today in some places), these philosophies bent what could have been a good thing into something malevolent. For instance, in the case of communism we see that in its absolute purest sense it is a perfect philosophy for man to govern himself or herself, after all everyone works equally and everyone partakes equally, no one ever starves. However, eventually someone must lead, and when this happens everything falls apart. Hence, while in theory it is perfect, in practice it cannot function. Nazism on the other hand made no illusions, everyone has a place, and yet no one should starve. For this form of socialism to work there must be a common enemy, either imagined or real. Obviously, this cannot work if there is no enemy. Socialism while a beautiful dream for the “repressed” people at the bottom of the ladder cannot work, in time, it is a system destined to fail, and yet even with glaring examples of failure throughout history we can see that as a system it continues to be worked into our way of life.

A state of ignorance among the population is required for any self-destructive system of government to work. It must be presentable to an ignorant people. It cannot work if the people are educated and aware of their history, as well as the realities in life. John Adams on the Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law in 1765 stated, “Liberty cannot be preserved without the general knowledge among the people.” He was speaking on feudal law, which as many of us may know with simple history lessons is frighteningly similar in form to socialism, there are classes of people, and that is simply how it is. Unfortunately, for knowledge to be general it is necessary to be willing to learn as well as willing to pursue that knowledge. For knowledge will not simply fall into your lap or come from the lips of your favorite news commentators!

So what are we to do in the pursuit of the preservation of our freedoms? How are we to approach this and win back the freedoms we see slipping so quickly away? As far as I can tell, no one knows for sure what to believe which leads back to the misinformation campaigns being wrought across this nation for many years now. On one side there is the press of people preaching the wrongs and ills of owning a gun and defending oneself, and on the other side they preach that it is wrong that people protest that which they do not like or agree with. We are taught from our youngest time that anyone different than us is bad, be it in religion, sexual orientation, political leanings or otherwise. However, if we study our foundations and truly make use of the knowledge we can now see that even though people may be different they are not necessarily wrong. Instead of feeding the machine of misinformation and ignorance, we should be working harder to instill a good set of values, beliefs, and knowledge into our youth! It is ok to disagree, and to have personal opinions.

By disagreeing, we are solidifying the idea behind states rights. For this idea was originally brought about to allow for differences in life styles, religious choices, and economical decisions. The Tenth Amendment clearly states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” So disagree, and move to a state that agrees more with you, but to preserve freedom for everyone do not allow your disagreement lead to insanity in actions! So here is my question, do we ban guns and allow free speech? Alternatively, do we ban free speech and allow defense of one?

If you answer either of those questions with a yes / no than are you, sure you belong in this great nation.

© Jesse Mathewson

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Originally posted at Is the World ready for this?

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