How Free Do You Want To Be?
Freedom ain't for sissies, folks
I get some interesting ideas, sometimes. I started thinking about the term ‘sheeple’ and thought it would be great to illustrate the deteriorating level of individuality in America. Only trouble is, I’m no artist; so I worked a trade with an artist friend. There are a total of four panels, with text in between, relating to the desire of some people to be led by dictators.
How free do you want to be?
So many things happen in our lives. We can’t remember them all. We remember weddings, funerals, graduations, and such. And we also remember some pretty innocuous things that somehow stay in our minds. Perhaps it was some embarrassing moment that stays with us beyond any good reason to remember. And, it was when a guy stood there and told me about meeting Fidel Castro.
Perhaps I was too polite. In fact, I KNOW I was. But I stood there and listened to him tell me what an imposing, impressive person that Castro was. The encounter happened in Cuba, at some sort of political meeting, or rally, or something. Castro only dropped into the meeting and was not a direct participant. But this guy was there, and went on and on about how magnetic Castro was, the extent to which he drew people around him, remembered names and was impressively personable. This guy was clearly enamored of Castro.
What the guy never mentioned, or in any way incorporated into his narrative is that Castro was a dictator. He was a died-in-the wool dictator for over fifty years. There was never a legitimate election in Cuba in all that time. Castro bragged about how he had stayed in power for all those years, as American presidents have come and gone. Of course, in America, that’s the POINT! No one is supposed to be all powerful. Either Castro failed to see that point, or he just didn’t care.
It's been a few years since I was told about this guy’s meeting with Castro. In that time, I have forgotten countless other conversations. Why remember this? It has played in my mind. But suddenly I had an epiphany. I have been wondering how people could be so complacent about political encroachments on our rights and freedoms, as political parties use government to lie to us and manipulate us concerning pandemics and elections, and everything else. The lies are factually obvious, and yet people somehow don’t see them. I realize now. There are the people who, when they regard Castro, don’t see a ruthless dictator; they see an impressive demagogue who can energize a room. Then again, so could Hitler.
There are those, then, who eschew freedom and inquiry. There are those who desire to be led, to be told what to believe in, to be provided with simple, mindless answers and solutions. They want a demagogue to tell them that everything is under control. That explains a lot.
Also, that is TERRIFYING.
” Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
Freedom ain’t for sissies. I have a dog who has a nice life, but only has as much freedom as I choose to provide him with. Don’t be somebody’s pet dog, even if you have to work at it.