(Continued from Part 1.)
The Colonization Era: 300 – 1750 AD
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, nation-states began to rise in their own power. I will not dive into all of them, as there is a lot of “rinse and repeat” styles of conquest, subjugation, and corruption. In this era, the name of the game was a continuation of the Roman Empire’s philosophy “see the world, fleece it dry”. However, the main leash that was used to control the masses became religion. It was during the 6th and 7th centuries that civilizations of people were now exposed to Islam and Christianity, in addition to their other pagan religions.
During the last throes of the Roman Empire, rulers noted how Christianity could spread like wildfire, and how powerful people’s desire was to adhere to it. From that point on, the subjugators sought a way to infiltrate and influence religion to control the populace. Both the Papacy (Vatican), and the Islamic Caliphate used religion to turn free thought and adherence to a higher power to destroy, murder, and corrupt half the known world. By using people’s desire to not be subjected to eternal damnation, some leaders were quick to “suggest” actions (that were not true parts of either religions teaching) to accomplish horrible deeds…and amass extraordinary wealth. The wealth collected by the Papacy alone was staggering.
Gradually, religious leaders re-wrote the rules to better suit them. You could now attain salvation through the church, even specific leaders, and not need God directly if you had the coin. It was this corruption and hubris in religious leadership that inspired Martin Luther to challenge the “selling of indulgences” that were being penned for people that committed sins. It was the largest and most pinnacle point where faith began to regain its individual connection (such that every Christian is a disciple).
Physically, the Spanish, Portuguese, and British Empires dominated far reaches of the globe. Time and time again, using their moral superiority complexes to “liberate” the rest of the world while simultaneously fleecing it of its wealth. The great gold and silver reserves of the Americas, the amazing animal wonders and diamonds of Africa, the exquisite talents and spices of India…all pilfered in the name of “Progress”…yeah, this is one of my dirty words I loathe.
The key takeaway is that these empires employed religion as a way to scare people into things that a sword never could do. Not only would people now fear initial death, they would fear eternal damnation / death too. Fear is a powerful motivator when people perceive their destruction outright if they do not comply. Throw into the mix a “moral and social obligation”, and you can twist and pressure people into anything you want. You see…right back to Antiquity…establish a servitude attitude, and they will follow in lockstep. These people are not ignorant of history, and use its teachings to their advantage. These groups just took the visual/spiritual aspect to a whole new level.
The “American Dream” Part 1:
Let’s dive into the meat and potatoes of where I am going with this article. America at its concept was started by people that wanted to get away from subjugation. A free new land to begin and maintain the way life was supposed to be when following Judeo Christian principles. On a side note, it is important to remember that the founders desired separation of Church and State…not to say that governance was empty of faith, but that the Church could not BE the state (or directly influence it). Men of faith were common…and needed to maintain a civilized constitutional republic.
Par for the course, the controlling empires requested more and more from the colonies than they were giving in return. Overseas piggy banks for the facilitation of the British Empire, the colonies provided raw materials in outstanding quantities to the industrialized economies of Europe. The final nails in the coffin were the “writs of assistance” re-authorization by the Townshend Acts, which allowed a home to be entered by force and ransacked for essentially “possible” tax evasion – and there was nothing you could do about it. The other was bleeding the productive value of all colonies by way of taxation without representation. You aren’t paying my bills enough…pay up, or we set fire to your town with you in it.
That is the point…you are nothing but a paycheck to these types of people. Your productive value only goes as far as their use for you. If you fail to pay up, they eliminate the problem or find another way to extract their pound of flesh. The other thing that you must consider, the British conned their entire country into thinking that the Colonies were inferior, and had to provide “their share”. This is the subjugator’s next trick…the sly words of mouth to deceive the masses (is there a wonder our politicians sound so smooth!?). For how else can an entire population be convinced that the ‘wrong’ of another needs to be corrected by the aggression of your own doing?
I sincerely hope the reader is well familiar with the severe sacrifice and blood that was given of America’s people to shake free of its foreign rulers. More and more frequently I see our youth today not being told the truth of our history – we all need to be informed of the truth. I could write fifty pages here, but have to keep moving to get to my point. It is often that I read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and I admire that the founding fathers (especially Patrick Henry) of this country looked upon the nature of subjugators – as though from their perspective, and designed an entire country’s governance around a restrictive structure that prevented the usurpation of it. How they must be rolling in their grave that they forgot “lifetime term limit” and “lobbying” exclusions from government function.
The “American Dream” Part 2:
After America won her independence, she still had a fight on her hands with the war of 1812 and the Civil War.
The Civil War was started as most are told over slavery. I am here to tell you that this is not the whole story. The Civil War’s roots began when the governing leaders of the North decided to start squeezing the Southern, producer-states more heavily. Industry was focused in the cities and the North, and agriculture and raw materials production was focused in the South. The Southern States did not like the way that the others were playing ball, so they decided to try and separate for their betterment (man history sounds repetitive!).
Some states were already in the early phases of freeing slaves, though some were a little more resistive. I cannot touch upon this more without going into another article that would likely generate more discussion than even SurvivalBlog could handle. Suffice to say, economic policy drove the initial wedge that began the displacement of the Southern States. After all…”follow the money” is a famous phrase for a reason. Follow the money trail, and you will always find a subjugator smugly waiting with open hand and an axe in the other.
I can argue in both directions – that President Lincoln was both a hero and destroyer of our free country. I always grew up admiring his work…but one thing I cannot shake…is that after his presidency, we all became slaves to the state. Whether his intent was always this conglomeration of power or not, I know not. All I know is that it was after the Civil War that we stopped referring to ourselves in the plural as “THESE United States”, and became the singular “THE United States”. The sovereign states were slowly stripped of autonomous powers, and the one state grew as a supposed check amongst them all. Remember, a government powerful enough to give you everything you want, has the power to take away everything you have.
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 3.)