The Value of Freedom to the Oppressed

Coincidentally, Netflix just happened to deliver "V for Vendetta" to me yesterday. Being as I was busy, I was unable to watch it until tonight and I am intrigued at the message that it gave about oppressive government and tyrants.



The story is based on a real person, by the name of Guy Fawkes, who in the early 1600's conspired to blow up the House of Parliament along with the King in Great Britain. This was known as the Gunpowder Plot. This movie took me by surprise by taking place in a time after the United States had a Civil war and Great Britain was ruled under an oppressive Hitleresque government. Oddly enough, some of the things said by the "government" in that movie seemed so close to home..

The second coincidence I had today was finding a pocket Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Amendments to the Constitution. I picked it up and decided to read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety and was refreshed at the spirit of freedom in those words. In particular:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness- That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."--United States Declaration of Independence

Tell me, how can a country based on these principles seriously expect to looks its citizens in the eyes and convince fellow Americans that they should voluntarily surrender their labor for others? What does my healthcare have to do with another human in Texas? Hawaii? Maryland? Absolutely nothing.

Is this what life really is about? Is this really freedom? Hefty taxation/economic servitude at the expense of people's labor who will most likely never even meet. Let's step back from political parties and affiliations and challenge the premise at its core.