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When a People Tyrannizes Itself

 
2052845_low By Selwyn Duke

                        


              Tax 'Em
High

All around the realm was heard a fateful cry:
'Twill make us sleep the nightmare if ye tax the other guy.
We can accept the yoke of poor polity,
If the misery cursing all gives equality.
Play one group against another, and us all you may ream,
Too busy envying each other we ignore your wicked scheme.
'Tis the rhyme of the time, no matter tyranny be nigh;
'Twill make us sleep the nightmare if ye tax the other guy.
Tax 'em high!

A study was once conducted in which participants
played a game involving the accumulation of money. It had an interesting
finding: Those describing themselves as leftists were much more willing
than others to give up a bit of their own cash if it meant taking more
from somebody else. What motivated this? It’s called envy, and we used
to call such people immoral. Now we call them "liberals."

Read the rest here.

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11 responses to “When a People Tyrannizes Itself”

  1. Robert Berger Avatar
    Robert Berger

    Yes, some left-wing extremists want to interfere with
    perfectly normal things people do in private, but the same is true of right-wingers.
    Many want to the government to have the right to pry into our sex lives and take away rights from gay people and even persecute them. But the government has absolutely no business putting its nose in our bedrooms.
    Some right-wing bigots actually want the government to recriminalize “sodomy”.Unbelievable. We’re not in the middle ages any more. This is the 21st century,not Iran,Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban.
    We don’t need another Anthony Comstock self-righteously interfering with people’s sex lives.
    In some states, stores have been criminally prosecuted for selling sex toys, which is absolutely idiotic.
    And many conservatives want the government to ban TV programs and movies they find”offensive” and”indecent”.
    What gives them the right to tell other people what
    they may view in public or in private, and to ban pornography etc.
    But censorship does not make people more virtuous.It never has and never will.
    Some year sago, many Catholics were outraged by reports of an allegedly “blasphemous” film,”The Last Temptations of Christ ” by Martin Scorsese.
    They hadn’t even seen the movie,and they wanted it banned! But we can’t allow this and open up the slippery slope to arbitrary consorship by the US government, or it won’t be too long before there are very few books,magazines,newspapers,TV shows and movies any one is allowed to have access to legally.
    Yes, those Scandinavian feminists are a bunch of censorious wackos, but many censorious conservatives are no better.

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  2. Robert Berger Avatar
    Robert Berger

    Yes, some left-wing extremists want to interfere with
    perfectly normal things people do in private, but the same is true of right-wingers.
    Many want to the government to have the right to pry into our sex lives and take away rights from gay people and even persecute them. But the government has absolutely no business putting its nose in our bedrooms.
    Some right-wing bigots actually want the government to recriminalize “sodomy”.Unbelievable. We’re not in the middle ages any more. This is the 21st century,not Iran,Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban.
    We don’t need another Anthony Comstock self-righteously interfering with people’s sex lives.
    In some states, stores have been criminally prosecuted for selling sex toys, which is absolutely idiotic.
    And many conservatives want the government to ban TV programs and movies they find”offensive” and”indecent”.
    What gives them the right to tell other people what
    they may view in public or in private, and to ban pornography etc.
    But censorship does not make people more virtuous.It never has and never will.
    Some year sago, many Catholics were outraged by reports of an allegedly “blasphemous” film,”The Last Temptations of Christ ” by Martin Scorsese.
    They hadn’t even seen the movie,and they wanted it banned! But we can’t allow this and open up the slippery slope to arbitrary consorship by the US government, or it won’t be too long before there are very few books,magazines,newspapers,TV shows and movies any one is allowed to have access to legally.
    Yes, those Scandinavian feminists are a bunch of censorious wackos, but many censorious conservatives are no better.

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  3. Walt Avatar
    Walt

    Good article Selwyn! I really like the Chesterton quote!

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  4. Pascalfervor.blogspot.com Avatar
    Pascalfervor.blogspot.com

    Berger, we are facing very terrible assaults NOW on our way of life due to the combined efforts of extreme Leftists and scheming, phony-Rightist Statists. And all you want to concentrate on are less wide-sweeping threats from social conservatives that does not exist and obviously hasn’t existed for decades.
    Berger, do you work for Selwyn? Is it your job to increase his blog hits by irritating his readers? Because I’m convinced you are either a troll or an idiot.

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  5. Jamie Avatar
    Jamie

    I love the Chesterton quote as well, but I am also reminded of the following C.S. Lewis quote:
    “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.”
    Let the people have their tanning salons, even if it is not good for their health. Leave that part to the health insurers to label tanning salon use as a pre-existing condition (much like how life insurers charge smokers more and forbid scuba and skydiving).
    BTW, while we’re on the topic of “sin” taxes: I keep hearing about how liberals want to give women the right to choose abortion, but also want to reduce the number of abortions. Why don’t we just tax abortions? Throw a $2000 surcharge on top of each abortion (even the “free” ones that Planned Parenthood always offers after tragedies like Katrina and 9/11), and just watch the number of abortions decrease while raising federal revenues. How come we never hear this tax idea come out of Washington? Just a thought…

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  6. jbailey Avatar
    jbailey

    The art of tyrannizing oneself may go something like this. Although I plainly see a set of facts that describes a snake in my garden….I hear his rattlers sound, I see his fanged head, I see the diamonds on his back….and if I am in my right mind, I will not go near that snake. That snake becomes the absolute ruler of his space. Now, if some so-called expert paints a benevolent picture of that snake and tells me that the snake will act in my behalf, that he is good for killing rats and insects, and that he should be adopted and made a pet in my household….I have tyrannized and terrorized myself if I have acted on that “expert” information. It seems to me that there has been ample evidence to paint an entity in it’s true nature…the problem has been that the masses have been “persauded”, “convinced”, “suggested”, emotionally manipulated into “believing” just the opposite. When parents, grandparents, friends and associates….when religious beliefs, pastors, radical thinkers and like minded individuals….all walk the same walk, all talk the same talk, and they all are bosum buddies with the entity…are we not to observe that birds of a feather flock together? LOL Hitler and Mussolini were tyrants…absolute rulers. They too had propaganda machines extraordinare. Never before in the history of this nation has there been any central thought as to “accepting and transforming” the guts of our Constitutional form of government into a socialist or communist one. From most everything that is transpiring around us…from astronomical debt, failure to cap an oil well, transferring technical and research data from NASA to Islamic nations, failue to plug the illegal immigrant porous border, reducing our nuclear arsenal, suing a fellow state for trying to protect it’s citizens, being “sorry we are still a superpower”, re-writing history and failure to tag a terrorist in its true form, etc. etc. ….it seems we are being “persauded, emotionally pushed, and mentally coerced” into the realms of socialism, communism, and the possibility of the expression of sharia law. I sincerely hope I am wrong, as much of this are the products of tyrants.

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  7. Kim Avatar
    Kim

    This last comment is right. Hitler played the game the same way and each person decided that Hitler needed them till he took their business’, jobs, homes and everything they owned except on bag they could carry to the camps and either starve and word till they died or burnt in the ovens.
    the same patern is going on in America. We have a Constitution, a Declaration of Independance and a G-d given Bill of Rights. There is ONLY ONE WAY to do anything..that would be to Follow the laws set up in each of them and take our forefathers warnings..keep your gun, just in case government gets too powerful. I say that to say this:
    I blame WE THE PEOPLE for their lawless blindness and have sat back on thier blessed assurances and let gov take over. From the first unconstitutional thing gov did , ALL OF US should have risen up and put a stop to it. Now that people are awake and paying attention, the very LAST thing they need to realize is to quit following the herd of thinkers who seem to have the mind set that the Republicans and Democrats are any different! What is it folks..can you not see that which ever side wins, America continues to sink. And how about one sets it up to do what obama is doing and now it is the turn of the so called good right side to beat the left and take over.Do you really think things will CHANGE> The think about America is they have NO time for G-d. the churches are filled with apostasy and people get less moral each day as the gov plays robin hood with all of us.WE voted to take out the UN..they are still here! HOW come. UNTIL everyone realizes that we the people are the gov and that we are a REPUBLIC , one Reagan warned IF WE CAN KEEP IT. A Republic is where we vote and they serve us..a Democracy is where we vote and they do as they please..Make sure we vote in honest people, check their records and see who they flock with,,birds a feather flock together.I have never seen a bunch of crows fly with Eagles..UNTIL we all rise up and HOLD them accountable. we are toast..and I mean ALL the laws set up over 100 yrs ago..If not then you will see our economy is being taken down on purpose, and we will be handed over to Communism and have no way to fight them. IT would have to be G-d’s way or hells way, we all have to choose..

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  8. yoyo Avatar
    yoyo

    wow only 5 comments and we hit a godwin! well done Kim. I was more amused trying to find the author of the doggeral – Chesterson hmm not known for literary ability. What amuses me most is the idea of Reagan as a libertarian hard line anti tax zealot. Even as a non- American this is soo much rubbish. PS just a note typing in caps is seen as in internet sign of hysteria.

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  9. John Avatar
    John

    yoyo, if you’re saying that Chesterton isn’t known for literary ability you need to get your medication changed. People who actually READ know that Chesterton is thought to be possibly the greatest writer of the 20th century.
    Get your snout out of Marx and romance novels and you might actually learn something.

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  10. Robert Berger Avatar
    Robert Berger

    Pascal,I’m neither troll nor an idiot, but a realist.
    You guys just don’t get it.The real threat to freedom in
    America is not from the Obama administration.All the reports about Obama being a socialist,Marxist,communist,Muslim,”baby-killer”,unpatriotic,bowing,apologizing, redistributing wealth,taking our freedom away,being a gun grabber,
    a Manchurian candidate,born in Kenya,hating our military,etc,are pure crap.Not a shred of truth to them.
    Obama isn’t a left-winger or radical at all.It’s just that the conservatives in Washington today are so right-wing it only makes him look left-wing.
    Hut this nation MUST be careful of a right-wing extremist takeover of America in 2112 or 2116 in the wake of the enromous backlash aginst Obama,which is entirely the product of half-truths,innuendo,guilt by association,slick negative publicity and one lie after another.
    Yes, the religious right, those wolves in sheep’s clothing,those sanctimoniuous windbags and narrow-minded,intolerant and censorious pompous asses,is the real threat. Right-wing cavemen and women such as Jim DeMint,Michelle Bachmann,Sarah Palin etc are the real threat.
    I’m not saying Obama has done a perfect job so far or will.Of course not. But right-wing poiliticians in bed with the religious right are the real threat to America.Mark my words.

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  11. jbailey Avatar
    jbailey

    yoyo, It would be interesting to know what kind of “non-American” are you. Chinese, Japanese, Korean….all are beautiful people. The Koreans died with us and we died with them…absolute strong fighters, physically and mentally fit. They love freedom and liberty as we do. The Japanese are the same, and they love a free enterprise capitalist system. The Island of Tawain is an extremely beautiful island…and the people there are very much in tune with us. Even the Chinese mainland had much respect for Tawain…and the word was that on days they would shell or bomb the island, they would call ahead and let them know what beach they planned to hit. LOL You used the term “rubbish”. When I think of rubbish…worthless stuff…I think of any system that takes away the ability of an individual to make his own decisions…in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are met on a tremendous front by a group who want to force as much “rubbish” down our throats as possible….meaning “changing”, “transforming”,
    “coercing” each one of us to adopt Marxist, socialist, communist ideas that are completely in disagreement with our founding fathers, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I am happy to report to you that the majority in this country reject communism as a way of life…and, if need be, we are willing to lay down our life for that ideal. We made a very bad mistake…it has robbed us of our life saving, and threatens to take everything we have, including our guns. That will never happen. In the coming months, this country will “vomit up” all the “rubbish” it has been made to swallow…and with Gods Grace, it will be projectile.

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