Free people look the part. They do not wear the same government-decreed uniform. A sea of the Face Diapered Demoralized, standing six feet apart on X marks the spot – perhaps with plexiglass partitions in between – isn’t a picture-portrait of freedom.
To describe such a pathetic spectacle of fear-induced obedience as people “celebrating their freedom” is like describing a quadriplegic as “differently abled.”
Not even the dignity of editorial honesty – much less the dignity of men, which is being systematically attacked for reasons which by now ought to be as clear the July sun.
Free people are free to smile – and be seen smiling. They do not obediently stand on X marks the spot or stand six feet apart just because a sign said so.
For the same reason they wouldn’t do jumping jacks because a sign (or a government Gesundheitsfuhrer) said so.
What meaning does “freedom” have if you are not free to get together with friends and others who choose to get together with you to peacefully enjoy each others’ company – and see each others’ faces?
Livestock are examined for signs of “sickness” – corralled and forcibly injected with various substances. They are chuted along the desired path, which isn’t one of their choosing. They have little to celebrate and so do not.
We have an opportunity celebrate this weekend – if we can find the independence to assert our freedom. By not allowing ourselves to be treated like livestock, corralled and herded and everything but actually gelded – which we might as well be, if we do allow it.
Assert your right to smile – and to see others smile. To breath freely. To shake the hand of a friend – or give a friend a hug – if the two of you aren’t afraid to. Without fear of what the fearful feel when they see you do so. Let them get therapy. Do not permit them to organize your reality around their psychological debility.
Let the uniform gather six-feet-apart and X marks-the-spot, looking the same and conveying the same without expression. Their faces hidden but their souls revealed.
Obedience uber alles.
These are the people of the Farce of July, who will celebrate it in their own pathetic way. In the same way that the people of North Korea tear their hair out whenever a Dear Leader departs – while also looking all the same, having the same uniforms and the same expressions. In the same way that Stalin’s chicken ran back to Stalin after its rough plucking – Stalin’s crumbs being more desirable to the pathetic bird than its self-respect.
Self-respect requires deciding for oneself. If one submits to every decision of others then to speak of the “self” is absurd. You haven’t got one.
It requires standing up for yourself by not tolerating the abuse of yourself, nor of others by dint of your manly example. Which isn’t a trait that only men can summon. It is a trait asserted by free human beings of both sexes – and one lacking in the moral eunuchs of the faceless, who stand where they are told on X marks-the-spot.
Free men and women stand wherever they like. They get-together with whom they like, whenever they like and as close as they like. They look at one another and can see one another. They smile and they laugh – visibly, openly.
This is how they celebrate their freedom.
It is how Americans once did – and can, again.
Which – if they do – will mean their children can.
There is no law, duly passed, compelling them to stand six feet apart and X-marks-the spot. Nor to efface their faces by donning a Demoralization Diaper as the price of being allowed to stand on X-marks-the-spot and six feet apart. Just the orders of the Gesundheitsfuhrers and the timorous tyranny at second-hand of the accomplices of commerce – the stores and other adjuncts of the government (what they have become) demanding six-feet-apart, X-marks the spot and the uniform demoralization of the Diaper.
Ignore the Gesundheitsfuhrers. Ignore the signs in front of stores and elsewhere that insist you are obliged to do as you are told just because they say so.
Say otherwise. Do otherwise.
Gather with the not-uniform this weekend to mark the Fourth. Stand and sit where you like. Light fireworks, if you have them. The real ones that fly and explode. Free people do that sort of thing to. Don’t just remember what it was like. Bring it back to life.
Do not participate in the farce. The pathetic pantomime of doing-as-you’re-told in order to be allowed to do anything.
This unmanly going-along to get-along. We don’t want any trouble here, said Ned Beatty.
But he got some.
Let’s give it instead.
Original: Eric Peters