The End of Oppression
Part 1: The Problem

Dear Reader,

Sometimes it can seem as if human history consists mostly of a long list of examples of man’s inhumanity to man. This can make it tempting to conclude that violence, oppression and conflict are the natural state of humanity and that lasting peace is an impossible dream. But this is not the case.

The truth is human beings even with our imperfections or negligence and malice are capable of achieving a society far better than what we have now.

But to fix the problems of the world, first we must understand their root cause. Many assume that humans are just inherently bad and think it inevitable that our greed and hatred will continue to lead to war and oppression.

But before you assume that, ask yourself. Are you inherently evil and violent? Are you incapable of peaceful coexistence?

If all laws were repealed today, would you go around robbing and hurting other people? I would not. And I would hope anyone reading this would not as sell. I’m certain you know a lot of people. Would they rob or hurt anyone?

If the vast majority of individuals answer this way, just who or what is causing all the misery and conflict and why do the good peaceful people allow it to happen? Of course malicious individuals can and do inflict harm on others but war, oppression and large scale conflict are the result of something else, are merely symptoms of one underlying disease. Not greed, not hatred and not simply the nature of man.

If we examine large scale oppression and violent conflict and see who is actually inflicting injustice on others and why, one common denominator shows up over and over again. The soldier does not, acting on his own and based on his own moral judgment, decide to go to foreign countries and inflict violence on strangers. The soldier fights and kills because he is told to and because he does as he is told.

The government enforcer who imposes the will of the ruling class upon the people does not do so because he personally decided based on his own conscience that such actions would be wise or moral.

The police officer does what he does because he is told to and because he does as he is told.

All the tax collectors and other government busybodies, who interfere in people’s lives, hinder production and trade and steal value from the people who create it, would never do such things on their own.

They do what they do because they were told to and because they do as they are told.

Throughout history, the vast majority of those who have inflicted injustice and oppression on society were not acting out of personal malice or hatred. They were merely following orders.

But if you told someone to rob or assault your neighbor, no one would listen to you. So how does the situation develop in which so many otherwise decent people will do the bidding of a handful of tyrants?

So how do you think the famous tyrants in history managed to get millions of people to follow them? How do you think that happened? One person, millions of people doing whatever they’re saying.

Did they have power over the people. Did they had little minions which enforced the power. Did they use their power to oppress people to make them feel like they didn’t have any power and that way they felt like they needed the king to survive.

It is true, once he achieves power, a tyrant can rule by fear, having his minions and his armies crushing any who disobey his commands. But that does not explain how the tyrant got such power in the first place.

In almost all cases when the tyrant is rising to power, the people are not gripped by fear. They are filled with excitement, happiness, and hope.

Oppressive regimes grow not by promising pain and death but by promising to take care of the people and to protect them from all the dangers of the world.

Eventually a dictator may rule by brute force and intimidation. But it cannot do that until he already has the loyalty and obedience of his enforcers and of his subjects.

Government enforcers do not do what they do just because someone told them to but because someone they view as a rightful lord and master told them to.

The psychology experiments of Dr. Stanley Milgram show all too clearly that most people will do things they instinctively know to be wrong including hurting complete strangers if they are told to do so by someone they view as authority.

Ironically, it is often people’s distrust of their fellow man and the desire to have some powerful entity that can protect and defend the innocent that ends up tricking good people into condoning and funding the very institutions responsible for most of the violence and conflict in the world.

Most injustice is not the result of individual malice or greed or hatred but it’s the result of normal people obeying the commands of a perceived authority. Many worry about how people might behave in the absence of government, when history shows that the far bigger threat to humanity is what people do in the name of government.

When asked what they want government for, people do not say division and oppression. They say they want it for good things, to protect people, to care for the poor, to provide infrastructure. But instead of achieving these noble ends, politics and government over and over again end up enriching and empowering tyrants, liars and thieves.

Though many people say they want government to make things fair and equal and to protect and serve the common man, government always creates a massive power imbalance with a handful of individuals having enormous amounts of control and money and everyone else having to choose between obeying and funding the ruling class or being fined or caged.

Since those in government are always vastly outnumbered by those they govern, why did the people allow this? Why would the common man imagine such a situation to be legitimate or tolerable? Why would he accept subservience to any master or feel obligated to continually surrender the fruits of his labor to an institution that views him and treats him like cattle?

Politicians are masters at using fear and emotionalism to pit different groups of people against each other until the people are begging for more laws and regulations.

Falling for these tactics is quite literally killing us. No, humanity does not need to be at war with itself and when it is, it is almost always the result of political opportunists intentionally causing strife and conflict in order to enrich and empower themselves at the expense of the freedom and safety of everyone else.

Those empower often by way of the mainstream media, tell us what we should care about, what we should worry about and what we should fear and the proposed solution is always more government power and control.

By dividing people into different camps such as democrat and republican, the people can be tricked into being perpetually angry at each other while politicians on both sides benefit.

Between the ongoing vitriol and divisiveness, many people don’t notice how much the politicians agree on. They all agree that they should take your money and control your life.

The politicians talk as if they represent and serve their constituents. But when it comes down to it, everyone knows what happens if he refuses to pay taxes or disobeys any of the politician’s laws.

Beneath the rhetoric, the situation is still one of rulers and subjects, masters and slaves. There would be no reason for free, prosperous people living in harmony with each other to want to be ruled which is why those who crave power always emphasize, exaggerate or create problems and conflicts to pit people against each other and scare them into believing that they need a master, that they need controllers and rulers to protect them from reality.

Tyranny does not come about through power happy people confessing malicious intentions. It comes about through power happy people feigning good intentions, thereby winning the loyalty and subservience of good people who then view the power happy people as authority and government.

In this way, freedom is whittled away piece by piece, always under the guise of serving the people until nearly every industry and every activity is monitored, taxed, regulated and restricted in the name of law, making the people unable to provide for themselves, unable to be independent and self-sufficient, unable to freely trade and cooperate with each other however they see fit.

The primary problem with society is not that man is inherently evil but that so many are willing to tolerate, advocate or commit violent aggression when it is done in the name of government and law. When those committing injustice have an aura of authority, even most good people will comply and obey.

When oppression is legalized, the proud law abiding taxpayers will not only tolerate it. They will fund it, condone it and vote for it. While it may be easy to recognize the evils committed by tyrants and their hired guns, too many people fail to realize that tyrants only have power, only have wealth, only have influence because the people give it to them. A regime that no one viewed as legitimate, no one paid for or obeyed, would not exist.

Where people do not look to an authority, do not recognize an authority, there is none. So if you want to know the source of most conflict and violence in the world, you might begin by looking in the mirror and asking yourself. Which acts of aggression against your neighbors, which examples of man’s inhumanity to man have you paid for, cooperated with, condoned and voted for?

A framework for understanding where we came from and where we must go. The objective is not simply reverence of America's founding principles, but to bring those living principles to the center of America today.

America's Great Awakening book can help you uncover the truths​.

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There is nothing more powerful than the truth!