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Sense & Nonsense

by Harold Byler

The allied forces discovered a copy of these “Rules” in May, 1919, at Dusseldorf, Germany. They were first printed in the United States in the Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Examiner-Enterprise that same year, 1919. Almost 30 years later, in 1946, the Attorney General of Florida obtained them from a known member of the Communist Party USA, who acknowledged that these “Rules” were then still a part of the Communist program for the United States. They are as follows:

 

1. Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial. Destroy their ruggedness.

2. Get control of all means of publicity.

3. Get people's minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books, and other trivialities.

4. Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.

5. Destroy the people's faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule, and obloquy.

6. Always preach true democracy, but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.

7. By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit and produce fear of inflation with rising prices and general discontent.

8. Foment unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders, and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward such disorders.

9. By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues, honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, and ruggedness.

10. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view to confiscating them and leaving the populace helpless.

All governments, from tiny local to national, have the power to Tax and Regulate. Less politely, they have the power to Take and Control. How government gets these two fundamental powers is seldom examined.

In the USA, the Declaration of Independence specifically defines the source of government power, "... governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ...". Leaving aside the question of what happens when the governed do not consent, we must ask, "Why would any rational person willingly institute a government to take their property and control them"?

In the USA, government power derives from creating incentives and penalties that influence individual decisions and actions. It is much more subtle than tyrannical decrees. It usually goes unnoticed when hidden behind the deceptive cloak of "good intentions".

America is a Republic where the citizenry elects representatives to carry out their wishes instead of doing it themselves by direct vote. Elected representatives (from local school board, city council, congress, governors and on up to the President) are responsible for exercising all government power in the USA. That power is limited by the constitutions (fundamental law) of the states and federal government. As long as elected representatives act diligently within the limits of law, the system works.

But when indolent citizens elect indolent representatives, power defaults to un-elected government employees who have no duty, or incentive, to act in the best interest of the citizenry. When government power defaults to the government bureaucracy, the opportunity for corruption is unlimited.

If America's problems were a conspiracy, the solution would be simple -  expose the leaders and disband the conspirators. But it isn't that simple. America's problems are the result of millions of American citizens acting spontaneously in what they think is their best short-term self interest. If it is a conspiracy, it is a natural, leaderless one where short-term self interest destroys long-term national stability.

In 1777, Thomas Paine (American Crisis, No. 4) said, "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it". Less well know is this quote from Irishman John Philpot Curran in 1790, "It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active.  The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt". (for other quotes see Freedom Keys) Think about that for a minute.

There are just under 24,000,000 government employees in the United States. Their livelihood depends on tax revenue and citizen dependence on government programs. When retirees and dependents are included, it amounts to about half of all US voters. No politician, whether local, state or national, can ignore such a huge single-issue voting block.

Government employees are seldom recognized publicly as a voting block with common interest in expanding the role of government at all levels. News stories identify many special interest groups but refuse to specifically identify the dominant special interest group in America - Government Employees. They gain power without oversight of any kind and are responsible only to their own self-interest.

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