The Death of Essential Liberty at the Hands of Contemporary “Crisis Culture”

I want to bring attention to some of the parallels that are becoming painfully obvious when assessing societal consequences that arose from 9/11 and the recent corona virus. I’m not going to go into the origins of these events for the sake of this argument because the origin is not relevant here. My intent here is to point out that the instinctive response from the government, federal, state, and local, is to suspend constitutional rights. This revocation of God given rights, is then justified by making the claim that it is being done for the purpose of public safety, also referred to as public good.

 

After 9/11, we had the USA Patriot Act that was a blatant violation of the 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments, not to mention ignoring Posse Comitatus whenever the government deemed it necessary to do so. People were OK with this, because we have to be protected from terrorism right? Fast forward 19 years, the mass hysteria triggered by COVID-19 has once again encouraged government to pounce on our rights, in order to protect us. Just like the post-9/11 mentality, people are OK with this because they want to feel safe. This is where we are at, Americans have forgotten what it means to be an independent, sovereign citizen, and we have forgotten how to come together as a community and take care of each other. Community Churches, and other charities exist to help people in times of need. As a sovereign people, as by the founders’ design, a crisis is not justification to completely trash the constitution and the rights that it protects. In a country that was founded on the principle of individual liberty, we have inadvertently lost the desire to be truly free because every time we meet a bump in the road, or a perceived crisis, we are quick to turn to government for the solution. I think that people have to come to the conclusion that the concept of government is not inherently good. This is the reason why the founding fathers constructed a restrained government that was only authorized to act in specific instances, and that was only given a focused responsibility while observing checks and balances that were put in place.

From the other side of the spectrum, government has no interest in taking care of people for the sake of being compassionate, as it has no incentive to do so. Government will always seek self-preservation and progressive acquisition of authority over the people.  The government must be kept honest, and the best way to do that is to drastically restrict their power and authority. If you give the government an inch, they will take 100 miles. This should not only be recognized but also expected. We cannot allow our rights to be taken from us every time that there is a crisis, big or small. Americans are at their best when the going gets tough. American government is at its worst in the same kind of crisis. Love and compassion should come from your neighbor, not your government. Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Coronavirus, whatever the crisis of the day, if we do not see the opportunistic nature of the government as it relates to essential liberty, then we will slowly continue our march to authoritarianism.

America must wise up. Not that we need to show disrespect, or mistrust out of the gate, but we need to start asking those in positions of authority, the questions that need to be asked when the narrative doesn’t pass the smell test. The question that we all need to ask ourselves is, “why do we have restrictions on government authority if we allow said government to ignore those restrictions arbitrarily whenever they see fit, during a so-called “emergency”.

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Jason A Brown currently works for a Department of Defense contractor at a clinic in Tampa Florida. He is currently in Pediatrics but has also worked Family Health. Aside from working full time Jason also possesses a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice/Homeland Security. With a full time job, a wife and 13 year old daughter, Jason still finds time to educate people on America’s founding document, US history, and the US Constitution, through his writing, as it is one of his passions.