By Don Jans
Let us all step back a moment and speak honestly without the expletives and you are bad name calling. If we could just accept that individuals are just that individuals and have different ideas and thoughts for many reasons. Some of those differences come about because of DNA and some come about because of environment and society, but they are differences, nevertheless.
I have had the opportunity to travel to many different places, places where people dress differently from me, eat different food, live in different conditions, and were raised in different atmospheres. What I have come to learn is that people are people and have ideas, have loyalties, yearn for a better life, are members of families and different social groups, but over all people are people. Most are kind and concerned, inquisitive, and will even go out of their way to be kind to a lost person from another country or state.
With this being said, the logical question would have to be, so why do we have so much confrontation, why do we have wars, why do we have groups of people intentionally destroying property and killing other people. Sadly, this has been the situation virtually since the beginning of time.
To answer this question, we must go back to our first statement that people are different. Most people only want to live within their own community and not be bothered with anything but their immediate needs and happiness. The other people look well beyond their immediate community and believe they must influence the lives of many. Neither viewpoint is good or bad nor is either viewpoint right or wrong, it is simply who we are, how we were created, and the DNA God gave us.
The problems and confrontations in the world are of course caused by the small number of people who look to influence beyond their immediate community. The reason they have so much influence, even though they are a much smaller group, is simply because they are able to convince portions of most of the people that they are going to somehow change their situations that will make their lives much better.
The group that looks beyond their immediate community are influencers. These influencers have dramatically different ideas that fall into primarily two different categories. We have the one category that has this idea that if they can only influence all the people to have the same dreams and beliefs that they have, they could lead the world into a state of utopia. These people understand that in order to have all people come into total conformity where all believe that the good of the community or the collective should be their only goal, also state that there must be a time of great conflict before the arrival of the utopia. Marx called this the revolutionary transformation from capitalism to communism. People living in America who advocate this philosophy call it transformation, change, new deal, and so forth.
The other influencing group has a completely different belief system. They advocate that the best society is a society where we celebrate the differences in people. That we understand these differences will cause conflicts, but they will also bring about a much more prosperous and free society. This group believes that all people should have the same liberty and rights regardless as to whether or not they conform with any singular political belief system.
It is this basis upon which the United States came into existence. Samuel Adams sated that a people must choose whether they will be a free people where all are free and encouraged to express their belief and strive to achieve their goals with limited government interference, or if they will choose to be slaves which means government reliant and government compliant.
Our founders set a new path and went against the common beliefs of the time and the past when they chose a system where the individual was supreme and the collective, government, or community was established with its goal and purpose being to enable all individuals to be just that; individuals.
Over the past hundred years or so the conflict between these two ideas has been brewing until it has come to the point where it is now boiling. On the one had we have those who belief in conformity and government control over all individuals versus those who advocate belief in the individual recognizing and championing that equal outcome and individual liberty cannot coexist.
Those who belief in conformity live by one rule and that rule is that the ends always justify the means with absolutely no limits to those means, while the other side believes it is essential to establish rules and laws and sometimes foolishly believe all people live by rules and laws and not by necessary means.
Sadly, the American people are no longer taught that these differences exist now and have existed for centuries. Not understanding the differences complicates the process of choice.
Everybody has the right to choose either concept. That would be equal outcome is better than individual liberty or that individual liberty is superior to equal outcome. But the choice must be made so it is critical we all understand the consequences of our choice.
It is critical that those people who are not consumed with politics and wish only to live a quiet life, nevertheless, take the time to understand on which side the person stands for whom they cast a vote because their vote does affect their lives. They can live with a guaranteed equal outcome and have their life decisions made for them by bureaucrats and technocrats, or they can live with freedom and liberty and make their own life choices. They cannot live with both.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal.
Don Jans is a national acclaimed author and speaker. He is also a lifelong student of history, with a special emphasis on Russian history. His study of Russian history led to 1917 which led to the study of the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Don has written five books on the topic of Collectivism (Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, and Progressivism).
Don has been a guest on numerous nationally and regionally broadcast radio programs. He is a weekly guest on a nationally broadcast radio program where he discusses collectivism and how it is impacting the United States, relating current happenings to the collectivist agenda.
Don has spoken to numerous groups across the nation on the topic of who and what is the United States and who and what is collectivism. The collectivist movement has called for a transformation of the United States. What is critical for all to understand is what is the transformation; what are we now and into what will we be transformed.
Don’s speaking approach is the same as his writing approach, and that is to be direct and straight forward with no regard for the current mandated approach of political correctness.
Samuel Adams said, “It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” If we are to remain free, we must be about setting brushfires of freedom.
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