I know I’ve spoken of this before, but the human brain is an amazing organ. It consists of a mix of water and fatty tissue. Yet within that gelatinous mass there are over 100 billion neurons that gather and transmit signals. Within each human brain is the recollection of every event that shaped that person’s life; both knowledge and personal experiences.

When a person is born their brain is basically empty, aside from the basic operating system which performs the functions of breathing, eating, sleeping, and ridding the body of waste; as well as the stored memories from the time spent in the womb. It is what we learn in life; either through the educational process or by personal experiences that shape us into the people we grow up to be as adults.

What we put into our brains, or what is put into them by our parents and our teachers, is, typically, what causes us to form the opinions and beliefs that guide us later in life. If faulty or inaccurate information is inputted into the brain, then it follows that the opinions or beliefs based upon that information will be faulty as well.

I was born in 1958 and made my way through the same public school system as did all the other so-called Baby Boomers who were born after the end of World War II. I was taught the same things as they were, and I grew up having many of the same personal experiences they did. But, for some reason, when I reached the age of 40, my brain suddenly developed an interest in learning more about the history of this country and the establishment of its system of government.

Now, 20 years later, I am told by some that I am very smart; which I find ironic because if I’m so smart why is it that very few utilize the information I’m attempting to pass on to them? Besides, I don’t like being called smart, because I’m not; I’m passionate about learning and devote a great deal of my spare time towards the acquiring of new knowledge. As Alexander Hamilton, (a man I despise), said, “Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it… the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.”

Albert Einstein purportedly once said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” Now whether he actually said that is beside the point, because, as I have found, the sentiment is true; the more I learn the more I realize how little I actually know.

As an example, recently I found a website with tons of material relating to the Founding of our country and its system of government and I boasted on Facebook that by the time I’m done putting all those documents into Word files I will probably have around 2,000 documents. My friend Michael Gaddy quickly told me that he has over 10,000 documents stored on his; so compared to how much he knows I am just beginning my educational process.

Then there is another friend of mine, Jeffrey Bennett, who began publishing a series of books entitled, America: The Grand Illusion, which were chocked full of documents and speeches dating back to before the first settlers ever set foot upon American soil. So compared to him, I am but a relative newcomer to the quest for knowledge.

But there is one thing that I have found in my own personal quest for knowledge; that being that what I was taught in school was either an outright lie or that it was lacking in certain aspects of the topic of study and therefore incomplete.

For instance, I was taught that the Constitution was written in the city of Philadelphia in 1787, and was shortly thereafter ratified by the States. But that is only part of the story. I was NOT exposed to the process of producing the Constitution; which can only be discovered if one were exposed to Madison’s Notes on the Constitutional Convention. I was NOT taught that ratifying the Constitution was not a cake walk; that a long and heated debate ensued between those who supported its ratification and those who opposed it.

In that instance the information I was given was lacking in its coverage of the pertinent information. Now whether this was intentional, or whether it was due to the faculties belief that there simply was not enough time to cover the subject thoroughly is up for debate; although I am inclined to believe it was intentionally done so as to produce graduates who did not grow up questioning the things there government was doing.

I would call that a lie of omission; because relevant facts were omitted from my education. Then there is the Civil War; where most of what I was taught about that subject was an outright lie. Sure, the War happened, the South lost, and the battles discussed actually took place; but that’s about all they got right. I was taught that the Civil War was fought to end slavery; and it wasn’t until I began my own personal investigation into the war, and the causes for it, that I discovered I had been lied to.

Yet how many people in America still believe that the Civil War was fought to end slavery? I would say quite a few; otherwise we wouldn’t see these Civil War monuments being taken down at an alarming rate. In fact, if the people of this country truly understood the causes behind the Civil War, and the consequences of its outcome, they would be calling for the removal of Lincoln’s face from Mount Rushmore and the destruction of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

One of the fatal flaws in the mindset of the average American is that they see those they elect as being superior to them; when in fact the reverse is true. We elect them, they are our representatives, we are the masters and they are the servants. They cannot simply enact laws just because they think these laws are in our best interests. They cannot enact laws simply because the majority of the people support their passage. They are confined to certain specifically enumerated powers; found in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution; nothing more, nothing less.

James Madison is considered to be the Father of our Constitution, as it was due to his pushing for a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation that we even have a Constitution. So it would be prudent so see what he has to say about a loose interpretation of what is meant by the General Welfare. In a speech opposing bounties, (subsidies), for Cod Fisheries in New England, Madison stated, “If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress… Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.” (My emphasis)

Then of course there is this; while serving as Vice President under President John Adams, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following in opposition to Adams signing into law the Alien and Sedition Acts, “…whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force. . . . that the government created by this compact [the Constitution for the United States] was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers…”

It is my belief that we are not taught these things in school because it might instill in the minds of those they are seeking to control the knowledge that they have the right to resist the enforcement of laws that violate the Constitution. Our public school systems are no longer institutions of learning; they are indoctrination centers where we are taught to comply with whatever laws our government enacts; for they have our best interests in mind when they pass these laws.

The problem I have encountered is that is next to impossible to break through years of conditioning; years of indoctrination. It seems that once people have established certain beliefs they are reluctant to let go of them when introduced to information that contradicts those beliefs.

I hate to bring a movie scene into a serious discussion, but it reminds me of the scene in the Matrix after Neo discovers the truth and refuses to accept it; telling Morpheus to get him out of the construct. As Neo staggers to the floor, Cypher says, “He’s gonna pop“; meaning his brain is going to shut down because it is not capable of handling the truth. Later Morpheus apologizes for freeing Neo from the Matrix, saying, “We have a rule. We never free a mind once it’s reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, the mind has trouble letting go.”

However, later, after Neo has accepted the truth, Morpheus tells him, “The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around. What do you see? Business people, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”

That’s how I see most people today, part of the system that enslaves them. They will argue and fight with anyone who threatens their belief systems regardless of whether or not they are confronted with incontrovertible facts. Most either believe in the two party system, or they simply don’t care one way or the other who runs their government.

On the one hand you have those who refuse to see that no matter which party is in control of government, government itself continues to grow in size, in power, and in the process, creates more debt. Their allegiance is to party instead of the fundamental principles that established America as an independent country at the end of the Revolution.

Then on the other hand you have those who care more about their sports, their video games, their Reality TV, or whatever other form of entertainment they enjoy. These are the people who probably couldn’t name the current Vice President, or list 5 of the rights protected by the Bill of Rights.

To tell you the truth, I don’t know which of the two is more dangerous to liberty; the ignorant apathetic masses, or those who believe in a system that destroys the liberty it was established to secure for us.

In 1822 James Madison wrote a letter to W.T. Barry in which he stated, “…a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” But that knowledge is of no use if it is faulty or incomplete. Those who seek to keep you ignorant, keep you enslaved to them, are not going to impart this knowledge to you; you are going to have to seek it out on your own. Whether you choose to do that or remain ignorant is your choice; but you cannot avoid the consequence of whatever choice you make.

For you see, Madison also told Mr. Barry, “A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both.” If you want my honest opinion I’d have to go with Option 3…both; as our government is both a tragedy and a farce.

It is a tragedy in that it does things it was never intended it be allowed to do, and it is a tragedy in that it destroys the liberty it was established to protect. It is a farce because the two political parties only differ in how they seek to use the coercive power of government to impose their agendas upon the people; and the people fall for it; flocking to the polls to vote for their flavor of servitude and bondage.

I believe the extent to which a person seeks out, and accepts knowledge is directly proportional to their patriotism; the less one is patriotic the less they care about learning the truth about the how and why their government was established; and are less concerned when their government does things it was never authorized to do.

I have chosen to acquire as much knowledge as I can, and to try and share it with those who are open minded enough to consider it. I have chosen to change how I think and feel based upon the knowledge I have acquired. What this means is that I cannot support this government we have today until it starts repealing laws and begins to return to the one envisioned by Thomas Jefferson, one which is “…a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government…“

If that makes me an outcast, a pariah, a threat to the status quo, so be it; so where our Founders; men like Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. I’d rather have my name go down in the history books alongside theirs than be listed among those who meekly accepted the bondage which was imposed upon them by their government.

However, like I said at the beginning, what we put into our brains is what causes us to form the opinions and beliefs we hold. If you want to keep putting garbage into your brain, then your opinions and beliefs will be garbage as well.

You have a choice to make America; wake the hell up and start learning the truth, or accept that your government is tyrannical and that you are slaves. Knowledge is the key, and as they say on the TV Show the X-Files, “The truth is out there.” All you gotta do is look for it, and be willing to accept it once you find it.

But, as von Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply.” That means, if you don’t see a candidate who runs on defending the Constitution and Bill of Rights then you should withhold your vote. Otherwise, as Lysander Spooner so aptly states, “A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.”

Jefferson told us that the spirit of resistance to government is so valuable that he’d rather see it exercised when wrong than not at all. I don’t see much resistance among my fellow countrymen; all I see is blind support and compliance.

Had that mindset existed in 1776 we’d still be eating Fish and Chips instead of burgers and fries, and our national pastime wouldn’t be football, it would be rugby or cricket. America was founded by lawbreakers and rebels, and it was due to their persistent refusal to bow down to a tyrant that we became a free country.

The Boston Tea Party was not peaceful compliance to the law. The tarring and feathering of tax collectors was not peaceful obedience to the mandates of their government. The refusal of the Colonists to surrender their arms at Lexington and Concord certainly wasn’t peaceful obedience either.

America will only become free again when freedom becomes the number one priority for people; replacing comfort and security. Freedom is not free; it comes at the cost of eternal vigilance and a steadfast desire to defend it from all who would threaten it; including your government.

America may once again become a great and mighty empire, but what good is all of that if the people who occupy it have no freedom? Knowledge is the key that will unlock the door and open your minds to the truth that your government seeks to keep you in a perpetual state of servitude and dependency upon the things it does for you. Freedom means taking responsibility for your own life, and accepting the consequences of the choices and decisions you make.

And maybe that’s why no one cares about it, because they’d rather have someone take care of them than accept that responsibility for themselves.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

November 14, 2018

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross, Student of history, politics, patriot and staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Send all comments to: bonsai@syix.com.

If you liked Neal’s latest column, maybe you’ll like his latest booklet: The Civil War: (The Truth You Have Not Been Told) AND don’t forget to pick up your copy of ROSS: Unmasked – An Angry American Speaks Out – and stay tuned – Neal has a new, greatly expanded book coming soon dealing with the harsh truths about the so-called American Civil War of 1861-1865. Life continues to expand for this prolific writer and guardian of TRUE American history.