The Tangent College
Well it is Independence Day week. mmmm…. Let us think about this. It occurred to me this week that, as you all know, we sought our independence from the great British Empire but now we have become exactly what we sought independence from 250 years ago. We are now, and have become, an Empire of lies; the new British Empire on whom the sun never sets. Our troops are stationed everywhere in the world and our corporate “colonies” are ubiquitous in every country. But the Empire of lies is apoplectic by the few nations that refuse to be colonized.
Our country was founded from two different, and eventually competing, models. The first model was founded in Massachusetts by the pilgrims and others seeking true liberty from England. The second model was founded by the British as a true corporate colony with the primary purpose being to make money. The first, given birth in Massachusetts, was the impetus that led to the war of independence from Britain. The second being Jamestown, established by the Virginia Company of London who began importing the first slaves as early as 1619 in order to work the tobacco fields.
Foundations are very important and they establish the house that is built upon them. The foundation of the Massachusetts model sought liberty from England. The foundation of the Virginia model, established by a British company, was bound to England financially. The British/American slave trade was part of that corporate operation. Many other companies in the colonies also attached themselves to England financially and thus were naturally resistive of any talk of independence as those in the north. These were the Loyalists, which were primarily loyal to their purses. But even more so the expanding plantations of the South, along with the slave trade, benefited from being a colony of England.
The rabble rousing, the call of independence, and the war itself began in the northern colonies. Virginia, with more at stake financially, had to be convinced, most famously by the speech of Patrick Henry – “give me liberty or give me death”.
Follow the money and it explains most things including “loyalty”, slavery, and inaction. So much of human behavior is protecting one’s own interests, maintaining their power and enlarging their purse. All of these are pretty much the same thing. As the Bible says “the love of money is the root of all evil”. And I will grant that perhaps many during this time thought that they would be better off financially independent from England.
The true number of genuine liberty seekers, for moral and philosophical reasons, was probably rather small. It is just the nature of human beings.
I do not contend that the people of the South were more morally reprehensible than those of the North, as evil can be found pretty equally in the heart of all men, but we mustn’t turn a blind eye to the corporate system of slavery that formed the bedrock of their society and culture. Eventually the cancer that formed the basis of Southern wealth, tied to Great Britain from birth, had to be painfully extracted. Unfortunately there are still those who feel the need to justify this corporate slavery as some form of liberty, for the slave-owners, claiming freedom to own slaves which is a freedom too far.
The corporate nature of slavery in America, birthed by England, along with the slave trade, which was also run by the British, is what makes American slavery more egregious than other forms of slavery. Most slavery throughout history was the result of a conquered people being forced to become slaves. Slavery in America was a corporate affair as was the slave trade. The flavor was different and I think was worse.
As Abraham Lincoln so brilliantly defines the difference between true American liberty as opposed to unbridled freedom, “we all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some of the word liberty a mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor, while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.”
Those of the corporate slave states as well as the corporate welfare state of today, which enslaves people in a different way, do not like to hear quotes like this. Neither do sex traffickers who deal in a most hideous and profitable slave trade.
Just last night we watched the movie “Sound of Freedom” (find where it is playing and go see it) which I would highly recommend as an unusually well-made and engaging movie that handles this difficult topic very well. It is not a documentary so much as a tense true story of one true hero who becomes a rescuer of trafficked children. A parallel that I thought interesting was seeing that the trafficked children were transported in shipping containers as merchandise in a similar way that the Negro slaves were brought here in horrendous conditions chained on slave ships. Both were done to maximize profits. Both the Negro slaves and the child slaves were treated like cattle.
But now, since World War II, we have become the new global power, the new British Empire. This is really the ironic joke of Independence Day. Perhaps we should seek independence from ourselves – I know I do. As I said in my video “our bumper sticker reads Ukraine or bust, and the enemy is us!” Am I being hyperbolic or disloyal? – I don’t think so. But we are happy in our welfare state slavery. We no longer import slaves; we are the slaves. Additionally we have foreign slaves in China, enslaved by the Chinese government, much like the black slaves were sold by African black slave traders, to make our trinkets which we are no longer willing to make for ourselves. But as I tried to explain above, regardless of who supplies the slaves, this does not justify slavery.
Meanwhile we are pretending to go to war with China – who makes all our stuff.
Seth Hancock puts it this way in his piece “Break Free from the Chains of Fear and Think for Yourself this Independence Day”, “Read the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776, the centerpiece of Independence Day. Read the grievances against Britain that led to our founders’ revolt. Don’t we have so many more grievances against our leviathan central government in Washington, D.C. today? Yet, the people largely remain compliant, stuck in their chains as slaves of the state.”
Read the whole article as there is much more concerning our chains of fear and being called “essential” or “nonessential” by our wonderful governmental Masters.
And so, there you have it, an independence week message. There is much detail that I obviously left out but I do try to keep these emails at a manageable size. Hopefully I explained it clearly enough.
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to read these words and consider them. We must keep learning and growing. As Bob Dylan put it “he not a busy being born is a busy dying”
Until next week, follow the path of righteousness, fall in love with true liberty which is freedom from sin and vice, and stay far from the camp of the Covidites.
Bill Ward