This is the twelfth essay in my live-blog of Hologram of Liberty by Kenneth Royce. You can also read my summary of the Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, and Chapter 10.
This is the final chapter of Royce's book and he takes some time to express his frustration with the American people:
Self-neutered through decades of gray surrenders, we're now fat and domesticated, caring only for our petty comforts. Oh, we'll vote if we're automatically registered by virtue of having a slave "driver's license." We'll protest to our Congressman as long as somebody provides us a self-addressed, stamped card. I am disgusted with our excruciatingly vapid July 4th parades and empty "symbol patriotism." Let's all move to Canada and be done with this American charade!
He then encourages the American people to wake up and become active:
We have much work to do. Pick one issue and make some noise. Oh, you're just one individual? So was Gregory Watson, who revived that compensation amendment proposed in 1789. Well, what have you done? What's your excuse--that you're not some college sophomore?
Pick one issue and make some noise! You've overslept, so get moving! Even if you think the Machine is unbeatable, throw some sand in its gears--or at least give aid to whose who do. You owe the rest of us, and your children, at least that. Let us all live virtuously and courageously in order to write a virtuous, courageous history!
But there is a problem. The Federal Government does not want a revival of Liberty and will use its military power to keep the people enslaved. The Federal Government has oppressed the American people slowly and methodically. This slow tyranny has worked, says Royce, because Americans have forgotten the following wisdom from James Madison:
It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment of our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freeman...did not wait til usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in [legalistic] precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and avoided the consequences by denying the principle.
Royce ends his book with a castigation of the "Patriot Light" who possesses "a third less courage than the regular Patriot!" Conservatives and Patriots, says Royce, might get upset at the passage of oppressive congressional legislation, but the reason they get upset is that they "already know that they will likely comply. Present outrage stems from the imagined pain of their future obedience." He urges Americans to draw a line in the sand somewhere and keep things in perspective.
He continues:
If my rough talk is making you uncomfortable--good. It's better to discover your lack of mettle now instead of later. Quit playing Patriot or Libertarian or Republican or free-market advocate. Quit the NRA and sell your guns, assuming you had the nerve to ever own any. Quit fooling yourself--wimp. Tear up your von Mises Fan Club Card. Cancel your subscription to the National Review....If you penny-loafer conservatives--you slaves in splendor--had even schoolyard courage, we'd have a free America today. But, no, you chirped for the gilded cage. And you got it--for all of us. Our vile "leaders" are not the real enemy. You are.
I found this passage quite interesting. It appears that Royce really believes that conservatives really want liberty. Conservatives do want some liberties. Even liberals want some liberties. But both groups want to control those liberties. Essentially what conservatives and liberals want is the State to grant the people privileges that each group deems are worthy. But ultimate control always lies with the State. When conservatives complain about government oppression, what they really mean is that the government is now being controlled by liberals who are using governmental power in ways that they do not like. Conservatives have no problem with government power, i.e, the monopoly of violence that the government retains for itself. They simply disapprove of that power being used in ways they dislike. There is nothing principled about their beliefs. As long as the government is spending money on the military, the police state, the war on drugs, and public education that backs their values, they will heap approbation upon their leaders. Thus, the number of true lovers of liberty are much, much smaller than Royce thinks and the odds against the State are even lower than he imagines.
Royce points out that several signers of the Declaration of Independence paid a very high price for their liberty.
- Francis Lewis had his home burned and his wife tortured by the British for two years. She died shortly after his release.
- John Hart's home was looted and burned, and his ailing wife died and his children 13 were scattered. He eluded capture by sleeping in caves.
- Richard Stockton was imprisoned and repeatedly beaten at the brink of starvation. His home was destroyed, his papers burned.
The people have put so much emphasis on the Constitution that the Declaration of Independence has faded from the American spirit. The people have been domesticated. Royce ends this final chapter with a final call to arms: "Even though the Constitution is a hologram of liberty, you can't afford to be. Think. Decide. Act. Now."
I will sum up my thoughts on the book in a future post.
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