COMMON SENSE; Revisited
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The Consent of the Governed
September 30, 2009 at 02:20 am by Matt S.Post under:I just found commonsenserevisited.com and downloaded the .pdf version of the pamphlet of the same name. I love it so far, but I'm having trouble getting past the first paragraph of the introduction.
"Paine made the case for individual sovereignty,
declaring that all powers of government were derived from the individuals who created the government..."
I feel like I have no need to read further. Individual Sovereignty and Government by the Consent of the Governed are the foundations of freedom. The safety valve for liberty, inherent in individual sovereignty, is the right to choose not to be governed at all. Those who choose to create a government have no claim on any persons but themselves and no right to exercise sovereignty over any geographic area beyond the private property of those who have placed themselves under the authority of that particular government.
This is clearly the truth behind the words of the secessionist American Declaration of Independence of 1776 as well.
Personally, I look forward to joining in a Compact of Mutual Aid with like-minded individuals and to see the blossoming of Society that will follow when the false doctrine of collectivist democracy (government by force) is tossed on the trash heap of history to fade from memory with the evil idea of the Divine Right of Kings.
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The Danger of War
July 07, 2009 at 03:53 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedPost under:The founders were especially concerned that the federal government would be used by special interests to pledge our country to war. They knew that war posed the greatest risk to our well being, both economically and spiritually (let alone the loss of lives). Many safeguards were implanted in to the constitution in an attempt to prevent this from happening. Foremost, the founders required that only Congress could declare war. Given that we are a republican form of government, the founders wanted this most important decision to come only after a full debate amongst the representatives of the people. They absolutely did not want the executive branch to be making the decision to go to war. Unfortunately, this has been exactly how we as a nation have gone to war since World War II.
The decision to invade Iraq was unconstitutionally delegated to President Bush by Congress (as Congress did not want to be politically accountable for the decision). I have no doubt that if congress had performed its constitutional responsibility to investigate the evidence that was used to justify invading Iraq they would have discovered the lack of credibility of that evidence. In addition, the will of the people at that time was strongly against invading Iraq. Millions of people had gone to the streets throughout the world in opposition to the pending attack. In contrast, the only proponents for the invasion were the administration and their neoconservative advisers. This is a perfect example of how the liberty of the people can only be preserved by the people themselves. If, we the people, had collectively been educated on this constitutional requirement Congress would not have been allowed to “wash their hands” of their most important duty.
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The Income Tax
July 07, 2009 at 03:51 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedPost under:The first income tax act, passed in England in the 1400s, was so hated that when it was eventually eliminated. The English citizenry had all records burned so the “hideous monster,” as it was then called, would never be allowed to return. It was not until the early 1800s that the income tax returned, and then to finance the Napoleonic wars. The people paid the tax until Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. Two weeks later, the people put so much pressure on Parliament that it was eliminated again. The celebration in London was the longest and most impressive celebration in the nation’s history. In fact, it dwarfed the celebration of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon, which had occurred only weeks before.
Today, the hideous monster is alive and well in the United States. There is no way we can consider ourselves a free people with any form of income tax at any level of government; federal, state, or local. This is a direct and invasive tax and its enforcement leads to oppression. It penalizes all that is good, including: hard work, saving, and investing. It is, in short, the most destructive form of taxation known to mankind. It is good for one thing, making people more subservient to government power. That is exactly why a progressive income tax is one of the main planks of the Communist Manifesto. It is specifically designed to reduce indigenous power and increase surrogate power. It is vital that we eliminate all income taxes.
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Inalienable Rights
July 07, 2009 at 03:49 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedPost under:Anyone who watched the John Adams series on HBO recently witnessed Adams’ comment to Jefferson when Jefferson presented his original draft of the Declaration of Independence. Adams commented (as I remember): “Mr. Jefferson, you have not only defined the rights of Americans, but of all peoples of the world.”
The magnificence of the founder’s work will be remembered for all peoples of the world. They understood the importance of defining the relationship between “the people” and their government (regardless of which country one lived in). They also understood that America was to be the guiding light for the rest of humanity. In this regard they warned against the people of America forgetting their responsibility to keep their government in check, lest they lose their rights. They understood that “the people” could not rely upon their government to maintain the rights of the people. They knew, all too well, that power would corrupt and re-accumulate in the federal government. They also prophesied that the time would come when the people would either act to restore their rights or they would “expire in a convulsion”. We are at that time today.
It is therefore our privilege and our duty to not only ourselves, but to all of humanity, to become fully educated and to restore the blessings of liberty and constitutional “rule of law.” Future generations will look back at this time and evaluate how each of us stood up to this historical challenge.
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The True Significance of the Declaration of Independence (Indigenous vs. Surrogate Power)
July 06, 2009 at 08:48 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedPost under:Understanding the nature of power is the key to understanding all relationships between humans and their institutions. To understand this, it is necessary to understand what Jefferson called the “laws of our being.” Human beings are created with unique characteristics. They have free will. They have the capacity to grow and evolve and appreciate the infinite nature of their being. They have the power to create their own reality—humans are creators.
