In Reply to: Thomas Jefferson said... posted by Alan on September 24, 2003 at 02:39:47:
I am not sure if robots is the right depiction but we did have the same views on many things, and not even thought out by ourselves but fed to us. That is not totally true if what some people have been saying in this board. It seems that many members of The Family pick and choose what they want to believe and what they want do put in action. In other words, we are being asked to believe that The Family is not The Family we knew. Now The Family is, we are told, a bunch of wishy-washy people who take the MO letters and the Maria letters any way they want to.
I don't believe that for a second.
But the point you make, that as ex-members who have tasted tyranny upon us is worth some thought. To be fair, I think that many ex-members were also partakers of the benefits that tyranny, wouldn't you think? Looking at Mr. Jefferson himself, and some of his peers, some of the very same defenders of freedom for the colonies owned slaves.
I guess what I am saying here is that I don't think we truly understand the words we used to defend our own interests and we sometimes call it rights. The famous "we, the people", obviously didn't include vast populations already in The Colonies just as current government declarations (any government, not just the US) don't include vast populations.
There was a reason for the so-called Founding Fathers to distrust government, they knew it from the inside and they created one. I find amazing that some people trust one party over other parties when not even those creators of this government did.
I also find amazing that many of us, ex-cult members who were taken for all we had, are still able to turn off our ability to ask questions, hard questions. Or that when questions are asked, many cannot deal with the answers.
Do you think it might be plain human nature and part of our own frailties? In other words, those seeking freedom for themselves really didn't care about freeing others when that would mean going against their own interests? In other words, the current government and the patriot act you mention are within the same type of mentality Jeferson had of protecting his own interests and the consolidation of government.