James DeMeo's OBRL-News Blog

Americans have historically enjoyed more freedoms than most other nations on the planet, especially regarding freedom of speech and of the press.  All of our existing freedoms as outlined in the original US Constitution and Bill of Rights are under severe assault today, however, worse than I can ever recall over my entire life.  And while the political left has always raised fearful specters of "violent right-wing Christian" factions fomenting some new apocalypse, coup-d'etat and American dictatorship, the ugly truth is, the current push to restrict and end American freedoms comes from those same left-wing ideologues, hard-Marxists cloaking as "merely liberal, innocent little sheeps, baaa, baaa, baaa", pushing seriously totalitarian agendas under the banner of "Political Correctness".  Even the tragic case of Wilhelm Reich validates this view, as well-documented in two books, In Defense of Wilhelm Reich by myself, and Wilhelm Reich and the Cold War by James Martin.  It was the hard-left Marxists and Stalinists of his day, the early carriers of the PC virus, who along with the Nazis tried to murder Reich in Europe, and also the same Marxist-Stalinist Left that finally succeeded in finishing the job in the USA, also engineering to get his books burned.

The PC demand is, everyone must conform to consensus ideology dictatorships that erases the rights of individuals to think, write, speak out against, or act upon on issues which the PC dictators find "offensive".  Draw a Muhammed cartoon, question the wisdom of Bruce Jenner, "deny" the CO2 theory, question "genderism" or open-borders suicide, watch re-runs of Dukes of Hazzard, or document how Reich was murdered by the political Left, and ohmygod, you are one evil SOB, deserving to be censored, slandered, beaten up, thrown out or even beheaded.

In that context, remembering what July 4th is all about is refreshing and liberating.  One does not need to be religious or an uber-patriot.  One can even be a liberal (even if most liberals, by endorsing hard Leftism, have forgotten their roots in opposition to tyranny).  July 4th marks our heritage and rights to be as self-regulated as is possible, to object to all those who want to rob from us the rights to our own life-path and ideas, and our rights to free associations with others who share our ideas, and to voice those ideas publicly, even brazenly.  Equally important, July 4th marks our obligations "to ourselves and our posterity" to stand up in defense of freedom, beyond merely words if necessary, as the minions of political fascism, and especially today Islamic fascism, have no intentions of stopping merely at throwing bad words in our direction.  Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand.  America was never so stiff as the patriarchal authoritarian Empires of old Europe, which Reich wrote about, and his changing views after departing to the USA expressed that change of heart. US government officials and military men all swear allegiances to the US Constitution, not to the President, nor to any political party -- even though it is clear enough, some of them wish that could be changed.  Liberty thereby carries a price, a responsibility to keep aware of that danger, and to oppose efforts to erode or destroy our freedoms domestically as much as to oppose the same from any foreign tyrant. Freedom is a right, not beneficently "granted" to us by any King or body of law, but as safeguarded within the American spirit, and our Republic, we have a tremendous gift from prior generations. A gift "if you can keep it", as Ben Franklin famously put it.  Can we keep it?

While never planned as such, July 4th came to identify the healthy impulse of Americans to stand up to the authoritarian agendas of tyrants world-wide, and especially petty tyrants in our own government institutions, who thankfully still can be voted out of office every 2 or 4 years, if we are smart enough to do so.  July 4th also marked an historical sentiment that spontaneously spread around the world, to be taken up by peoples of nearly all races, creeds and nationalities in their own struggles against Kings, Emperors, Commissars, petty dictators and tyrants.

Keep that healthy rebellious sentiment alive!

Happy Independence Day, 4th of July!

James DeMeo

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