Why do we consent to give up our liberties? And what can be done to regain them? | Beaufort County Now | The answer is that each of us must take a stand and stop accepting the unacceptable

We like to say, and many of us still believe, ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.  We have been taught that a pillar of the American experiment is based on the concept of “consent of the governed.”  But all of that is a lie.

You download an app to your phone or computer.  To install it, you are presented a page that is called something like “Terms and Conditions” and you have to click the “Agree” button in order to install the program.  If you don’t click Agree the program will not install.  Few of us read what we have agreed to.  And almost no one goes back later to see if the terms have changed.

A group of religious zealots fly airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  Politicians and bureaucrats respond with new policies and practices that we are told are necessary to keep us safe from it ever happening again.  Suddenly, our government is tracking every phone call that is made anywhere in the country.  We are told they only use the information to monitor potential terrorists.  Later we learn that some of those people possessing those powers we have agreed for them to have and use are taking sides in an election and using the technology to influence the selection of our leaders.  Did we agree to that? 

A disease made in a lab in China becomes a pandemic.  In response our leaders tell us we must stay at home.  They close schools.  They require us to wear face masks.  They claim all this is required to keep us safe.  We agree.  Every time you see people with a mask on you should consider that agreement.  You may wish to call it compliance and you may correctly say “we really don’t have a choice…”  And we don’t.  Or do we?

Ponder these words:  Accepting the unacceptable makes the unacceptable acceptable.

We would suggest that many of us are becoming to realize that we have consented to lose our liberties and freedom.  And many of us don’t find that acceptable. 

The question is:  What can be done about it?

Edward Snowden, perhaps the greatest “whistleblower” of our day, has some ideas about that.  Watch this video to hear them.