Better To Perish Than To Live As Slaves

Some may disagree with what I am about to say, but the fact is, all people, wherever they may reside in the world, have chosen the govern-ment they live under. And it is not a choice made once and for all. Even small choices made over time may substantially alter or destabilize the most firmly established and well balanced govern-ments. Each day citizens may either resist changes to their existing political apparatus, sometimes strongly, or they may simply go along with them. In any event, they are making conscious choices, choices that will lead to a definite outcome.

Consider Germany in the 1930s. During hard economic times and a period of political and social unrest, the people of Germany stood at a crossroads. With a number of alternatives before them, they chose Nazism. Some actively chose it; others, the vast majority, chose it simply by giving in to it. Nevertheless, as a result of these collective choices, the German people opened the way for a charismatic figure, Adolf Hitler, to seize absolute control of their government. And once he had that control firmly vested in his hands, he wasted no time cajoling and bullying the largely decent citizens of Germany down a dangerous and desperate path, a path that ultimately led them to their downfall.

But let us return to the here and now, to the America of 2010. At this very moment, we, the current generation of Americans, are choosing by design or by default the government our children and grandchildren will live under. And it is this government that will determine to a very great extent the level of success, prosperity and personal fulfillment they will experience in their lives.

Though we obviously are not the Germans of the 1930s, there is no reason to suppose that we are any less susceptible to the blandishments of amoral and smooth-talking politicians, especially during difficult and uncertain times.

From a book entitled “As a Man Thinketh,” by James Allen, comes this unusual and thought-provoking quote: “It has been usual for men to think and to say, ‘Many are slaves because one man is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor.’ Now, however, there is among an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgment, and to say, ‘One man is an oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise the slaves.’”

I believe strongly that we in America are retreating steadily from our traditional values of independence and self reliance, and are adopting instead the mentality of slaves. More and more we yearn not for liberty, as our ancestors did, but for a life devoid of any real responsibility, a life where thinking for one’s self is largely unnecessary. But have we ever stopped to realize that by exhibiting this despicable behavior we may be inviting an oppressor to step in?

Americans, it is time to wake up! It is time to stop drifting with the current. It is time to begin resisting not only the slave-making policies of our government but our own wishful and impractical thinking. We must forthwith refrain from giving our government any indication whatsoever that we are composed of the material from which slaves can be made. We must let our representatives in Washington know, in no uncertain terms, that we still are proud and defiant Americans, Americans willing to fight for our precious liberties, the ones God granted to us and that were secured for us in our nation’s founding document, the Constitution.

Winston Churchill, no stranger to fighting tyrants, once said: “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

Let us hesitate no longer. The time to make a crucial decision has arrived. Let us this very day, this very moment, resolve to resist oppression and choose liberty, as those who went before us did.


"They tell us Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature has placed in our power." -- Patrick Henry