How Did We Get Here?

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It’s 2016. We are 40 days from the Presidential election.

So, how did we get here?

As a country, we’ve abandoned hope, we’ve given in to fear, and we’re seemingly okay with it all.

A long time ago, the ideals of the American Dream went away. They were replaced by people “knowing what’s better.” They promised to fix the ills of society by giving them the ability to plan what you and I do.

As with any social change, it began with something small, limiting an act in the interest of “common sense,” or “safety,” or “the future.” Once empowered, they used fear to drive public opinion to their side, limiting more and more freedom. Those limits preserve power and control.

With each step “forward,” a little bit of freedom was lost. With each act by government, at the federal, state, and local levels, we lost a bit of the American ideal.

We’ve settled for asking for permission, rather than living our own lives as we see fit. When it comes to electoral politics, we’ve settled as well. We seek to be ruled by a “good king,” rather than finding someone who understands what freedom entails and only wishes for its acts to be to protect life, liberty, and property, leaving the rest for us to figure out ourselves, as individuals.

Today, you and I are more often asking for permission, instead of reaching solutions with and for ourselves.

On the bright side, no matter what happens in forty days, more people are looking for something different.

Every day, more are tiring of the same.

Every day, more people see what’s wrong with letting others plan their lives.

Every day, more people realize that freedom is easy.

We just have to act like it.