Perspective and the State

     I often see and participate in irate meme sharing, and bold words about my hatred for the state, and I do hate it. I have also traveled the world. I have seen happy poor people scraping by with little to nothing, gathering brush for fuel to cook their meager meal. I have seen a country I thought I was fighting to free descend to the old norm in a matter of weeks after the withdrawal in Afghanistan. I saw girls that thought they would possibly be more than a toy and baby machine for the men of the country lose that hope. I listened to a police officer in Iraq tell me he wished Saddam was back, because he kept the lights on, and all U.S. Soldiers did was destroy the only good things they had going for them. 

     I think of Yeonmi Park tell her stories about North Korea and escaping that hell hole, being trafficked and watching her mother get raped to protect her from rape. Michael Malice’s The White Pill seeks to explain that evil need not win. While I am not at all “white pilled” I do have perspective. Perspective is very lacking in many ideologies. Just as conservatives and libertarians tell the neo-communists and neo-socialists et al that communism is much worse in reality than what their college professors have sworn to them, liberty seeking Americans fail to acknowledge just how bad it could be here. 

     Yes, I know our money has been destroyed. The administrative apparatus is choking commerce and free trade. Covid restrictions state by state showed why staying vigilant and saying “absolutely not” should be the norm for anyone who doesn’t want their country or state to descend into a neo-USSR. But the United States is not the U.S.S.R. or North Korea. I’m not saying it’s perfect, nor would I presume to make that argument. Taxes are oppressive, yet I can walk into a grocery store and buy a week's worth of food without getting into a gunfight. 

     Perspective doesn’t mean complacency, but it can do a lot to tamp down the anger that seems so pervasive. It is a just anger, which is why it is so common amongst those who follow the zeitgeist. A righteous anger can warp your perspective as easily as an irrational one. 

     So when you're sitting on your couch, or in front of your computer screen fuming out of your ears at this or that, remember some perspective. Don’t let it go, don’t become complacent, but allow yourself to remember that for all the evil the state does, and is capable of, right now we are still living at a level of prosperity higher than that of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. There is a country where the citizens worship their dear leader and think he’s the savior even as they starve. Mock your wood be rulers, and while you protest, even if you get kicked off Facebook or Twitter, the police aren’t knocking on your door over your stance on pregnant men like in Britain. Vigilance will keep it that way, but perspective will let you enjoy what you have now.

     In Liberty