Smoke and mirrors

Read this recently, and found much to agree with: "The most effective slavery leaves the illusion of freedom." That illusion is very much at work in the U.S. today. Think about it: "choice" is a veritable mantra, and not just in reference to an alleged right to eliminate pre-born humans. We have 20 bazillion channels on cable. Baskin Robbins has 31+ flavors. Dozens of types of cars, scores of restaurants... we can even choose paper or plastic when we go grocery shopping.

Were any people ever as free?

But then... can we choose not to fund abortion through our tax dollars? Can we choose not to have our impressionable children exposed to lifestyles we find immoral? Can we resist government efforts to take our property and give it to others who'll provide more tax revenue? Can we say "enough already" with the World Democracy Project (which, ironically enough, is killing democracy at home)?

By encouraging people to be consumers rather than citizens, those who would move the levers of power have created a powerful fascade. We revel in our material choices, often without realizing we are heavily constrained when it comes to matters of substance. The government to which we now look for sustenance uses that same power of taxation to force us to subsidize things we would never support on our own. It is, at best, a Faustian bargain.

And we need to find the opt out clause.