Living in a conquered world

We can choose something else instead

You are told that you live in a “free” country. Is this so?

You must not leave your house without proper identification, documentation, and insurance. You have the right to travel, but you’re told the principle mode of travel, driving, is a privilege, which can be granted or taken away depending on your willingness to comply with government directives.

If you decide to get on a plane, you must submit to having identification checked, clothing removed, belongings searched, and everyone — even small children and the elderly in wheelchairs — must pass through x-rays, and detectors that scan for metals and explosives.

In certain states, your child gets the vaccinations the government compels him to receive, attends the school the government selects, learns the things the government requires him to learn, reads the books the government has picked for him, eats the food the government puts before him, and is coerced to sing the praises of the government that required these things.

In states where a parent has been granted “permission” to choose alternative schools, education remains compulsory. The parent cannot choose to work, play, farming, or travel as alternatives for their own children.

Before a child becomes a teenager, he is told to choose a college or a career. Where there are shortages in one area or another, the government uses force to push children toward its desired selection.

The government decides how much money you are to be paid for your work, how much vacation time and other leave you are to receive, how much you can save for retirement and at what age you can start drawing on your retirement savings.

The government chooses our friends and enemies, using our money to supply troops or munitions to fortify or destroy one or the other.

This is what it looks like to be conquered. We live in a distorted reality, the cumulative impact of centuries of political manipulation and interference. Our lives are in service to the state, and not to our families and our communities.

It is said that the best prison is the prisoner doesn’t realize he’s in. The only thing that keeps us trapped is our unwillingness to see the truth and demand our birthright of freedom.

There are those who will conquer the world
And make of it (what they conceive or desire).
I see that they will not succeed.
(For) the world is God's own Vessel
It cannot be made (by human interference).
He who makes it spoils it.
He who holds it loses it.
For: Some things go forward,
Some things follow behind;
some blow hot,
And some blow cold;
Some are strong,
And some are weak;
Some may break,
And some may fall.
Hence the Sage eschews excess, eschews extravagance,
Eschews pride.
- Translated by Lin Yutang, Chapter 29, Tao Te Ching