LEAST WE FORGET the price of being and staying free and safe, it seems wise to know about individuals who work diligently to learn what is happening and inform us.
LEAST WE FORGET the fact that there will always be individuals who seek to deprive us of the right to liberty and security, and steal the fruits of our labor; it's wise to stay conscious that individuals often work together in gangs to accomplish what can't done alone...
It's also wise to know we ususally give these gangs names like "government".... "corporation".... "institution".... "church"... This seems to make it easier to shift blame away from who or what is actually causing the conditions created...
Rather than accept the fact that it's the CHOICES made by each individual that creates the way it is.
What inspires individuals to ascend out of blamingitis, to take responsiblity for making appropriate choices, and holding others accountable for doing the same?
Maybe reading the words of self-governing individuals who daily walk their talk might answer this question...
In this section Chris Whitten shares a little about his thoughts and lifestyle choices...
Some people think I have a pretty cool job. I play on the Internet all day and I get to work with some of the most brilliant intellectuals of our generation. But the job has its drawbacks, too. Building a new organization can be frustrating and stressful, and I could certainly provide better for my family's future in the for-profit world.
So what inspires me to keep coming back every morning?
I remind myself of the vital importance of freedom. And I remind myself that the most valuable contribution I can make in protecting that freedom is my work here at the Henry Hazlitt Foundation.
Liberty is essential for human civilization -- not just for progress and economic prosperity, but for peace, happiness, and life itself. If you'd ever like a powerful reminder of this, I recommend the work of R. J. Rummel, Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii. Through his books, like "Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder in the Twentieth Century" (Transaction Publishers, 1994) and his Web site, Rummel has presented the evidence for his version of Lord Acton's Power Principle: "power kills, and absolute power kills absolutely."
Rummel presents exhaustive scholarly research analyzing the violence and mass murder that big governments commit. His central thesis is that democracy and freedom prevent mass murder, but when power is centralized, people die.
"In total, during the first 88 years of this century, almost 170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death: or buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens or foreigners. The dead even could conceivably be near 360 million people. This is as though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power and not germs." R. J. Rummel
In the Western democracies, we sometimes grow complacent in the knowledge that our governments don't commit such atrocities. But the fact is, we don't have to live in a totalitarian state for power to be mortally dangerous. And if our freedoms aren't jealously guarded, our democratic governments can easily become authoritarian states.
How close to home is "death by government"? Consider this: five years ago, on April 19, 1993, the U.S. government killed 76 men, women and children near Waco, Texas. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Waco disaster is not just that it happened, but how the mass media responded to it. They unquestioningly accepted the government's behavior. At most, they viewed it as a series of mistakes made by misguided federal agents.
The mainstream press does not defend our freedoms. How can they? Beyond their self-serving and overly narrow view of free speech, most journalists have no understanding of freedom -- they simply do not see the danger in government power.
Fortunately, the mass media are not our only means of communications. Even where the government directly controls the press, as in totalitarian states, communication tools have become increasingly decentralized. Telephones, photocopiers and fax machines have made censorship difficult. The Internet is making it close to impossible.
The Internet opens communication to a wide range of voices. If the mainstream media can't put incidents like Waco into a context where they can be properly understood -- as ominous attacks upon American liberty -- there are others who can.
Those of us who understand the crucial importance of individual rights are using the Internet to report the atrocities of statism, put them into context, teach the ideas of liberty, and coordinate the forces of freedom.
Free-Market.Net has become known as the center for libertarianism Olin. Each month, our Web site gets 15,000 to 20,000 different visitors who are looking for information on liberty. Thousands of them find events, local clubs and organizations, and thousands more read materials from our partner organizations like the Cato Institute, Reason magazine, and the Institute for Objectivist Studies. I've talked to a handful of people who have even joined the free-market movement full-time through our Help Wanted section.
We can fight the lethal centralization of power, and we can win. We can stop death by government. That's what inspires me every morning.
Yours in liberty,
Chris Whitten
Free Market and Freedom Law
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