“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”
That we live in the “information age” is likely a conclusion that most people, nowadays, would probably agree with. That most people are well informed however, is another matter altogether.
There are likely a number of reasons this is true. Everything from being just too busy and relying upon soundbites from the network nightly news and a favorite radio station or just plain apathy.
And then there’s the internet, which is probably the most massive source of information in the history of the world. Users can quickly access information about whatever their little hearts desire to learn about. “Just Google it!” With a world population of just over 7 Billion, there are over 3 Billion users but what exactly are these users doing on the internet?
If you want to know what they are doing just Google it! I did and what I discovered was that there are many types of users who are doing everything from shopping to listening to music, from watching Youtube videos to posting on social media networks and much more.
Okay, let’s get back to the information issue. There are many News Media, political and other informational sources to choose from. According to EbizMBA.com the top 15 most visited news sites, as of May, 2016, are all Main Stream Media “MSM” outlets and the Polical sites are pretty much all names people are familiar with and I believe would also be classified as MSM.
So, from this information what can we conclude about the information people are getting? Well, it’s just this blogger’s opinion but it seems to me that even though there are a plethora of non msm alternative media outlets online to choose from, many people are not accessing them. They continue to get their information from the MSM and therefore, most people are still only getting the information the global elitist want them to get with all the proper biases, political correctness, obfuscations and downright misinformation they can muster.
Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of people who are accessing alternative media sources because, as one who IS accessing them, I can say, with a fair amount of certainty, that the alternative media is alive and kicking butt. There is no doubt that more people everyday are getting wise to the blatant attempts by msm to obfuscate the truth and promote a particular point of view which is blatantly biased both left and right. But all that being said I’m still astounded by the number of people I talk to who still just don’t “get it”. They listen to Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin and think they are getting the “rest of the story” but are they? Or are they just getting more of the “Left / Right” paradigm that’s so embedded in the minds of the human race, they don’t realize there’s another altogether different alternative.
When Ron Paul said, many years ago: “Government is not the solution, it is the problem” I knew he was right and that conclusion led me, ultimately, to other conclusions about “Nationalism” and “the State” which I, as a Libertarian, have become convinced is the primary source of most of our afflictions and has been the ruination of the Free Market and the thief of our Liberty.
Unfortunately many still believe that the government, whose solutions have consistently failed and made things progressively worse, can somehow change the tide. They believe that “if we can just elect the right guy; a Donald Trump maybe; surely he will make a difference; they all hate him so he must be different.” And we all know how a “different” candidate works out so well. (tongue planted firmly in cheek) Sadly most have not recognized that when you ask the government to DO stuff for you they will and they will exact a price for those services that in the end, after it is too late, it will be discovered the price was too high.
If we intend to be free we must throw off the shackles of the State and of nationalism, which most have confused as patriotism. The State produces nothing so in order to render these services they must first extract, by force, the money required to render these services and since the appointed government now has a monopoly on these services, they can exact whatever price they desire.
In the US that price has reach over $17 Trillion Dollars of debt and anywhere from $120 Trillion to over $200 Trillion in unfunded liabilities, depending on who you read, not to mention the human cost of thousands of American lives and millions of lives overseas due to US interventionist foreign policy and an infinite war on terrorism which, quite circularly was caused by the US interventionist foreign policy and is ultimately just a tool of the Military Industrial Complex to make a handful of people filthy rich by justifying the State’s alleged duty to keep us all safe.
Call me crazy but with the entire global economy on the brink of collapse and the US being completely unwilling to stop spending us into oblivion, via the Federal Reserve, just who can save us; the Antichrist?
I’d submit that we can save ourselves when we finally END the state and all of it’s apparatuses which enslave us. Then we can create a society based upon voluntaryism, truly free markets and the non-aggression principle. Any government that arises will arise out of the free market by voluntary cooperation and it must abide by the same exact rules as those it governs. If individuals cannot steal or kill, neither can the government. No use of force but to defend one’s life and or property is allowable. No victimless crimes and the perpetrators of theft and or violence will pay restitution to their victims and not to the State. We must realize that the State is a perverter of justice.
Do people prefer tyranny or freedom? Should people be able to keep what they produce or own and use it how they see fit or should it be taken from them by force and dispersed however the appointed group has determined? Are people really less capable than the government of “doing the right thing” and just walking around trying to figure out how they can take advantage of everyone else or do they need an “incorruptible” state to make them do the right thing? Should people be able to do with their own bodies what they want so long as it doesn’t interfere with the rights of others and or other people’s property or do they need the State to tell them what they can and can’t do with their own bodies; what they can or can’t eat?
In short, there is nothing the State does that cannot be done better, cheaper and more efficiently by individuals and groups voluntarily cooperating. People should be free to enter into whatever contracts they choose and no one but no one should be forced to do anything by coercion under threat of violence which, is exactly what the state always does. It knows no other way. So the only answer is to — have no State. It is wholly uncontrollable and tyrannical by nature. Besides, why do you need the State to run your life? I believe you are perfectly capable of running it yourself. And realize this, whatever success and prosperity people in the US or anywhere in the world may have, they have it not because of the state and government but in spite of it.