February
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2013
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2013
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February 04 2013 |
How To Restore the West 
By any political, cultural or economic measure the nations of the West are in total decline. The historic virtues of hard work, free-market thinking and a common cultural integrity as well as religious and historical principles are gone. They have been subverted and replaced by an emphasis on rampant materialism and a consumer driven society that exceeds 70 percent of GNP in addition to private and public debt. Furthermore, a kind of parasitism has laid claim to Western culture by which sports stars, politicians, media darlings and financial scam artists get recognition and exorbitant incomes while real workers find their incomes falling and promised benefits curtailed. Western society has lost its way. The main reason is the former political leadership of individual European nations and America, as imperfect as they were, have been co-opted and taken over by a corrupt power elite that uses its control over mob rule democracy and massive financial contributions to buy controlling influence over the "representative" governments of most Western nations. This control has meant the political leadership and central bankers do not represent the citizens or the best interests of the nation at large. Instead, politics works to advance the financial and global governance interests of a small, secretive power elite. This takeover has bankrupted most nation-states and now threatens all existing fiat paper currencies as well as public and private wealth and retirement savings. The Restoration How can the remaining productive, freedom loving people of the West reestablish control over their individual nations and personal lives from an elite that considers us little more than sheep to be shorn and serfs to be pillaged and ruled? Working through the existing controlled political process to elect a few more freedom advocates is a "feel good action" but in reality, the power elite's domination guarantees this is not a real solution; nothing will change since they control the parasitical, mob rule democracy. Actually, the fake political sacrament of democracy and universal suffrage is the agent of our serfdom rather than an opportunity to participate in genuine self-government. We have to confront the institutions and false belief "memes" used to control and manipulate Western citizens, rendering us powerless to determine our personal or national destinies. We must restore localism and regional sovereignty over mega and supra-national governments and institutions along with protections to defend us from elite control. These include private free-market solutions when possible, limited and decentralized confederation governments, direct democracy strategies such as referendums that bypass elite actions, repudiation of sovereign debt used to enslave us and competition for paper currencies and central banks as well as audits for all institutions controlling us. We must destroy neocon control and their war making actions over governments and limit the growing cancer of mob rule and pillage of productive citizens. Finally, every people and regional part of larger government entities should have the right of peaceful, democratic self-government and secession as the ultimate bulwark against tyranny. It is to this end I have developed the 12 Axioms of Freedom Restoration listed below:
Axiom 1: Advance Individual and Regional Sovereignty Over Elite and Global Governance Control Fascism is the system of government that cartelizes the private sector, centrally plans the economy to subsidize producers, exalts the police State as the source of order, denies fundamental rights and liberties to individuals, and makes the executive State the unlimited master of society.... This describes mainstream politics in America today. And not just in America. It's true in Europe, too. It is so much part of the mainstream that it is hardly noticed any more. – Lew Rockwell Historically much of the strength and vitality of the West was based on local communities, an intact family, cultural and religious structure and maybe some local specialty agricultural, natural resource or crafted products that were exported or traded for other nearby goods and services produced by other communities. Most taxes, military requirements or personal service that was rendered to the local, regional or distant central government were implemented during wartime or when the reigning political entity had revenue problems, which, of course, they often did. Governments and politics have always been about stealing wealth using coercion or false promises and nothing will ever change in this regard. If you look at the world as it is today rather than as you wish it were, nothing is as it was, particularly in the "formerly" advanced West. We live in a financially and economically interconnected world where transportation and information travels at lightning speed when compared to 100-plus years ago. The modern centralized state began to form in the US in 1913 with the coup by financial elites creating the Federal Reserve and the income tax, and started somewhat earlier in Germany under Bismarck. Now, to be honest, despite the wealthy and powerful banking interests involved, for many these "advancements" were a grand experiment designed to improve the lot of poor and impoverished citizens in addition to centralizing power and programs at the top. The world back then, as today, was far from perfect for the vast majority of citizens. Over these last 100 years there have been many similar political and economic models used to improve society, ranging from communism to fascism and national socialism and now back to the modern fascist model, without the anti-Semitism and violence so far, of the national socialist (Nazi) model. Although now everyone blames the Germans for the horrendous results of National Socialism, at the time it was considered a new program to save Germany from the horrors of the First World War and the punitive destruction and massive theft of the Treaty of Versailles. World War Two and the rise of Hitler were created at Versailles by the greed and corruption of a few Western leaders and a power elite seeking to benefit financially from the German defeat. The consequences continue even today with the problems and violence in the Middle East. My point in this short history lesson is we can't go back to the world of the 19th century nor should we want to. Generally independent local communities, unique cultures and the impact of religion on society are dying in the West. These old values are being destroyed by a world of global commerce and massive corporate conglomerates controlled by a few. In addition, the migration of peoples to relative wealthy countries for work together with the corresponding export of industrial and even service jobs to the lowest-cost foreign venues is wrecking the economy and employment opportunities. We are in the middle of a massive dislocation of people on a worldwide basis and it is only difficult to observe this because we are in the middle of it. Together with these changes, power elites are conditioning society to accept these dramatic adjustments just as they did in the United States and Great Britain during the 19th and early 20th century when the mining industry would build communities and then leave for other resource locations. In another example, the textile industry abandoned mill towns in New England for lower cost production locations in the southern states. This followed the War Between the States and the 100-year southern depression following the military defeat and Reconstruction (military rule) by the Union. Remember, unlike today, the two earlier centuries were a time of growing empires and expanding nation-states together with industrialization using economies of scale so I believe the South's attempt at independence was doomed from the start. Note, I haven't mentioned the free market or individual and regional sovereignty because the 19th and 20th centuries were a period of centralization of power and the growth of the nation-state. Individuals became cogs in a wheel and little more unless they were very smart, hard working and entrepreneurial. But the Internet Reformation is changing all of this. An open and alternative Internet media is rapidly replacing the earlier monopoly power of elite print and radio propaganda. Many alternate views and information is now provided to counter the falsehoods of government, the mainstream media and the financial establishment. In addition, the lies and cover-ups of history are being pushed aside now with more revisionist and non-victor versions of the past so we as a people are learning both the good and ugly aspects of each country's true history. All of this terrifies the power elite used to getting their way with a dumbed down populace and voters controlled by the former monopoly print, radio and cable media. The Internet Reformation is forcing them to make a quick, mad dash to solidify their elite and global governance rule before the Internet is utilized to inform, organize and fund a "critical mass" of opponents to thwart their global fascist rule. Freedom advocates must use the power of the Internet to promote our version of free-market actions and personal and regional sovereignty instead of their one-world control. Future axiom articles will highlight different actions we can take to promote liberty and to restore the greatness and free-market thinking that was once the West. Finally, politics has changed forever with new political parties and candidates like Ron Paul and secession/independence parties across Europe using the Internet to get their free-market and decentralization messages out. The opposition EU and Anglo-American elites only propose a modern day form of top-down control that is little more than a resurgent, slightly friendlier form of fascism. Axiom 2: Promote Human Action and Free-Market Thinking
Contrary to politically correct elite propaganda and indoctrination, only a small percentage of the population has the capability and desire to initiate purposeful individual action. When individuals make a choice to act based on a value judgment with a definite end result in mind this is known as human action. Whether or not the result comes about as expected depends on many known and unknown factors, including market forces, timing and the action responses, if any, by others. Still, this human action is a display and triumph of the will of an individual in contrast to actions forced or motivated by others. In a perfect world each of us should be free to choose our actions with the understanding that every action can have positive, negative or no consequences. But the sad reality is that the world is full of bad people out to murder, steal, rape and pillage and not all of them, certainly, are in positions of power and authority. Where outside regulations are needed to protect the public from evildoers, previously religion and now more and more corrupt government and legal systems have performed this role. While many of my anarchist friends might disagree, in today's world rules and regulations – some enforced by government, and on occasion by fair judiciary and honest law enforcement officials – are a necessary function of government, preferably carried out at the state and/or local level. While it is true that the only legitimate function of government is to protect individuals from fraud, breach of contract, theft and aggression, and we therefore require a federal military, local police and law enforcement and a government court system, there is often a misrepresentation of threats and therefore wrong solutions suggested. For example, few would question the need for a strong military defensive posture to protect the US from foreign military invaders and genuine terrorist attack, yet our major threat today is from our own government, not foreign invasion. Except for 9/11 – and probably no one will ever know what really happened there beyond the obvious conclusion that the government's official version is wrong – the only attacks against the US were the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which Roosevelt knew about beforehand and welcomed to get us into World War Two, and the British invasion and burning of Washington, DC during the War of 1812. Otherwise, the US has been relatively safe from foreign attack. All productive Americans have far more to fear from Washington than from any real or faked advisory of impending danger from foreign shores. Given the most realistic threat to US citizens is actions taken by the US government, what can ultimately protect Americans from Washington? First of all, the Constitution and Bill of Rights are now dead and toothless, regardless of the best of intentions back in 1787. Initially an attempt to restrain the establishment of a powerful central government, the original legitimate central government set up by our founding fathers, The Articles of Confederation, was replaced by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. Reinstituting a state militia and military, loyal first to the citizens and government of an individual state and secondarily to the Washington federal government, would offer significant protection to the citizens of a state. Note that National Guard units in every state can be "nationalized" in an instant and control taken away from the state or governor, to be transformed into a federal force. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson federalized National Guard units during the time of civil rights strife to insure states' rights were in name only so that the states had no military forces to defend their rights. Did you know that the US Armed Forces have been almost unique in the world since the War Between the States by not having regional or local units recruited from specific states or geographic areas? This has been done to make sure state military units would not withdraw from federal control in the event of another federal invasion against citizens and states that wanted to leave the union or that might refuse to fire on or act against their neighbors. As a former member of the military, I am very familiar with the fact that soldiers can be shot, court martialed or imprisoned for failure to follow whatever orders come down from above, meaning from Washington, DC. To rectify this situation, the individual states first need to reconstitute independent state militias outside the National Guard, which can be federalized. Secondly, every American should own a handgun or shotgun and, if experienced, an assault rifle and be properly trained in how to use it. The day may come when you and millions of other Americans will be forced to defend the right to own firearms for defensive purposes. More bullets and firepower are always better than less. Third, the productive citizens of each formerly sovereign state need to educate the public and promote a return to state sovereignty, reinstitute the right of nullification and incorporate direct democracy and referendums at all levels of government to augment citizen control. Finally, although the free market is best at determining price and economic efficiency, everything about free-market thinking involves the consent of both sides in a transaction or action. All government force, such as mandatory licensing, product approvals by one corrupt government agency or another, price controls or currency, debt or market manipulation and regulation, is unethical and illegitimate. Free citizens should always engage in transactions and decisions where consent is present. Whether the law approves of a transaction or action between adults is meaningless and generally, government or other monopoly third-party intervention using force, fines, penalties or other forms of coercion is counterproductive and harmful to the parties involved. Therefore, we must always oppose government intervention when possible and stay away from those out to force fascist controls and practices on a formerly free society. This is, of course, difficult in America's economy where controls, mandates and revenue extortion are everywhere but it is important to conduct ourselves in as free a manner as possible. The next axiom published in this series, "How to Restore the West," will be number three: Work For A Return to Legitimate Confederation Government. From this point on, all axioms will be specific, concrete recommendations rather than theoretical and philosophical in nature. Axiom 3: Back to the Articles of Confederation as America's Central Government Americans demanding a return to limited government, a balanced budget and an end to spiraling sovereign debt have been voting for the GOP for decades and the result has been total failure on all counts. To accomplish these goals we really must turn the government structure back to our first government model, the Articles of Confederation, so the centers of real power are at the state rather than the federal level. Since 1913, it has been very easy, between maintaining the two-party monopoly and buying off Congress, for the power elite to control leviathan from the top down. This would be far more difficult if power, authority and programs were decentralized and returned to control of the individual states. Changing the government does not mean voting in another president or changing whether the Democrats or GOP control the House or Senate. Both parties are equally guilty and responsible for the downfall of America. Yes, I would certainly prefer Rand Paul to another Democrat president following the second term of Barak Obama. And of course more liberty-oriented state house representatives as well as senators and congress members at the federal level would help to get the liberty message out. But national politics today is like "window dressing" on the Titanic and electing a "few more good politicians" will never create a majority on most important issues. The political leadership knows we are sinking and have reserved the lifeboats for themselves. All of the electioneering and mindless political chatter is about as relevant as deciding who would pay the final bar tab on the Titanic. Politics is just a subterfuge to keep you in the bar while the elites rush aboard the lifeboats. A Short History of the Articles If we really want to restore the original republic of our founding fathers and a modern day version of liberty and limited government back to these united States, the current all powerful federal government must be relegated to the trash heap of failed ideals of history – and soon. The formerly sovereign states of the US must return again to our first federal government, the one our founding fathers created and our patriot armies shed their treasure, blood and lives to establish, the Articles of Confederation. Before the Constitution was drafted, the nearly 2.5 million citizens of the 13 sovereign states were governed under the Articles of Confederation, established by the Second Continental Congress. The limited confederation government formed by the Articles began on May 10, 1775 and lasted until September 15, 1787. Please note the population statistics at the time did not include Africans or Indians, according to the US Bureau of the Census, so the real population was substantially higher than the official figures. According to US Office of Personnel Management, the 2011 civilian federal workforce, excluding postal service employees, was 2.15 million. Adding in the 500,000 postal workers means there are more civilian parasites employed by the federal government living off of productive taxpayers in the private sector than there were citizens back in 1776. I believe the Constitution and Bill of Rights have failed our nation because of the actions of a few. The Constitutional or Philadelphia Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 through September 17, 1787 supposedly to address problems with the Articles of Confederation. Slow methods of communication had made it difficult to govern a decentralized confederation of sovereign states, both at the executive and legislative levels, one of the reasons a more centralized government structure was suggested. So although the announced public intention was to revise the Articles, powerful interests represented by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton conspired to create a new government instead of improving the lawful and legitimate government of the Articles of Confederation. The result was the Constitution that America operated under for better and sometimes for worse until the coup of Lincoln in 1861 and the total overthrow by Money Power in 1913. Note most of the participants supported the Constitution because of communication inadequacies of the Articles and had the best of intentions but there was a hidden element consisting of those out to emulate the powerful central governments of Europe. The extreme opposition to the Constitution has been covered up and downplayed in the establishment's directed history propaganda about the period but, in fact, men like Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee (great uncle to Robert E. Lee) and many others strongly opposed ratification. The Anti-Federalist opposition was strong and existed across the nation. For instance, in North Carolina and Rhode Island, the new government was not ratified until forced to do so. In Rhode Island, resistance was so strong that civil war almost took place but with the passage of the Bill of Rights, the opposition collapsed, the Articles of Confederation was ended and the new, more powerful government structure took over the federal government. A Sampling of Coup D'états and Black-Flag Operations In US History
Of course, the truth of many such actions was effectively covered up until historical accuracy was revealed through the Internet Reformation. This is why the history books and public school texts teach only the authorized propaganda version. The first was the Whiskey Rebellion in 1791 in which armed resistance by citizens against a new whiskey tax took place in opposition to Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's federalist program to increase central government power and revenue. George Washington and an army were used to successfully quell the rebellion. Second was the Fort Sumter incident in Charleston harbor in which a horse was killed but the "battle" was used to coerce Northern newspapers to begin to oppose Southern independence as strongly as they had earlier urged a peaceful solution to state secession. The real reason for the about-face was that the Southern states generated most of the government revenue at the time because of import duties and the Union could not survive without the Southern revenues. The third was Lincoln's call for troops from the different states to invade and conquer the seceding Southern states. This demand for troops and states to wage war on other states caused the states in the upper South to vote in secession conventions to withdraw from the union. Southerners rightly considered their actions a second American Revolution against tyranny. Fourth was the secretive and deliberate aid to support both the communist takeover of the Soviet Union as well as later support for the Nazi regime in Germany by Wall Street interests. Fifth was Roosevelt's prior knowledge of a certain Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor after the US had cut off all oil and steel imports to Japan. Many in Washington felt this was necessary to stop Hitler and aid our communist Soviet ally against the will of a majority of US citizens. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by Lyndon Johnson, based on a falsified incident, was introduced to get the US into a ground war in Vietnam. This harkened back to both the Charleston Harbor incident as well as the 1898 sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor, starting the Spanish American War. Then there were the political assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy as well as Dr. Martin Luther King and the attempted assassination of George C. Wallace. During those days the elites didn't fear truth because without the Internet Reformation and alternative media of today there really were few outlets available to circumvent the establishment news and opinion monopoly. Therefore, political leaders could say and even act often without restraint as long as they didn't have the mass popularity to threaten the monopoly control. When this happened, there was usually a warning first that some heeded, like Ross Perot. Others were eliminated or badly wounded, like Wallace. Looking Back In hindsight now, 220-plus years later, it is clear that the concerns expressed by the Anti-Federalists were correct. They strongly opposed the central government having more power than the state governments, were concerned about the federal judiciary and rightly feared the presidency could morph into a monarchy. Actually, the recent presidential election, inauguration and the related entertainment provided proof we have the presidential trappings of monarchy, the centralized power structure of fascism and the immorality of Rome's Caligula. America has come a long way DOWN from the original government established by our founding fathers, The Articles of Confederation. Next, Axiom 4 will show how to organize and structure the restoration of our individual states back to the Articles. The quote by Lew Rockwell at the beginning of this article best describes what they have in store for us and is the reason I'm writing "How To Restore the West" and "The 12 Axioms of Freedom Restoration."
Ron Holland is a contributing editor to several newsletters dealing with political and investing topics (including the popular free-market oriented Swiss publication, "Mountain Vision"), a member of the advisory board of Zurich-based BFI Consulting and chair of the advisory board of The Foundation for the Advancement of Free-Market Thinking (FAFMT).
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