I think a major issue is that the government (largely) is not accountable because we do not hold them to be. It’s a shame how few people vote. This if followed closely by the number of people that vote and have no idea what they’re voting for or what issues are valuable to them. Being a citizen of this country comes with some degree of responsibility (we the people…that’s us!). Unfortunately, I think many people are either too busy, too lazy, too uninformed, too ignorant or have been lulled into a state of disdain which causes them not to act and own up to their responsibilities. I’m one of those people who says, “If you don’t vote…don’t complain.”

NJDrummer

Rich

I wish I could have home schooled. But having to be the single parent when the ex left for greener pastures, I couldn’t. (Not that she would have ever listened to me anyway. She was born an individualist.) So, I did the next best thing. I found her private education teaching the basic skills needed to think on her own, but with inclusion of moral values and the freedom to know the joy of a classroom where daily prayer was included.

She has turned out magnificently, I might add. At least everyone tells me that.

So, go for it!

And I’m here from Michele.

Damn straight. People think I’m a liberal. Funny thing, though? Every time I’ve posted on a liberal site something to that effect, they jump all over me.

Fucking whiny crybabies. They seem to think that no matter what, a person is a victim. Poor? It’s the government’s fault. Kill someone? It’s the chemicals in your brain. I’ve posted on KOS for the last time because of shit like that.

Not that anyone would ever mistake me for a Republican. Like you, I’m an individualist.

I hope you’ll take my one minor quibble with this post as a note of encouragement. When I settled into an individualist mindset myself some years back, I recall looking at much of the sphere of local, state, and federal governmental activity with horror. And not without reason! But while my town, state, and country might give me the most fodder for complaint, simply because they affect MY life, I eventually found that the real horror stories could be found in those places in the globe that didn’t even make a pretense of respecting the individual. Whatever the numerous and descpicable shortcomings of the governments we deal with may be, they do not seek to stamp out every trace of self respect. As such, even normal, non-heroic folks like you and me can find that the seeds of healthy individualism were merely dormant within us. And also important, that the potential for political change is still there, even without the need for violent revolution. Not to say it’s always easy, or even worth it to try, but it’s still a damn lot better than someone living under the thumb of Robert Mugabe or Kim Jong Il or Saparmurat Niyazov. So yeah, the often subtle oppression of our governments can be much more dangerous than you might think at first, but the overt re-education-camp no-jury-trial no-elected-representatives every-fifth-man-is-connected-to-the-secret-police type of oppression found in too many other places is a nightmare, a living hell on earth. And it’s much more dangerous than what we’ve got here.

Oh and Jules - take that Idol count with a grain of salt. Yeah, it sounds big and impressive to say more votes were cast last week than in any presidental election - but remember, no one can legally sit up all night and press redial (manually or with technology) all night long to vote for President. It is not an apples to apples comparision.

I wholeheartedly agree that our government is more covertly controlling than many others throughout the world. It’s why getting active in politics and exercising our right to vote is so important. How sad is it that more votes were cast for American Idol than in any presidential election?

Reading your post really gives me some hope that more people are beginning to awake to the smell of real freedom, not what we have been allotted by our corrupt government for so long.

While we may argue about the free internet stuff that is only details. If we could change all the stuff that we agree on the world would be a great place to be.