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The United States has lost its way. The people, without vision, struggle to find solid footing. Stately institutions once commanding respect and adding dignity to public discourse, now grovel and grumble to gain the attention of their masters. We have chosen a troubled path. America has committed two fatal blunders. We have concentrated power, and continue to do so at an ever increasing rate. And we have unleashed finance, formerly a measure to impose discipline, making it a means to excess. These mistakes have shattered America's noble purpose - to be a beacon of freedom to the world. Those who would dispute the assertion of "fatal" blunders either fail to understand the implications of tens of trillions of dollars of debt, or dismiss the commitments those debts represent out of hand. Intellectual dishonesty cannot deny reality. A nation in debt, like a man in debt, is ever a slave. A people who indenture their very lives, and the lives of their children, can no longer "assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them." Debt is self-imposed bondage. A country is not a free nation if its people are not free. America is no longer free. American's inadvertently suppose politicians can turn this ship around. Truthfully, most politicians don't even know where the wheel-house is. The will of the people sets the course for a nation. Unfortunately fear and greed corrupt and coerce will. Since the allies victory in World War II America has been awash in power. For the practical purpose of stabilizing an unstable world, Americans allowed the then unprecedented centralization of power to continue and grow. The seed of this error took root and flourished. Over the past 65 plus years, through the careful management of fear and greed, the people have sometimes unwittingly but more often willingly forfeited their power (wealth, honor, and freedom). We continue to do so enthusiastically today. The second fatal gaffe, which really was an accelerant of the first, was made possible by the establishment of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. You see money, for all its features, really represents trust. The concentration of power, as it always does, corrupted those charged with managing that power. They cleverly adjusted the monetary system to leverage trust. Money is now the prime driver in governance, politics, business, social welfare, health, national security, you name it. Trust is broken. Finance alone, more than vision, more than values, determines what happens and who benefits. A few people with foresight recognized the folly of these choices. They realized how to take advantage of the lucrative target - concentrated power - and have successfully refashioned the system to channel untold affluence. We now bear witness to the greatest transfer of wealth, and the greatest amassing of debt, the world has ever known. The people, the masses allowing this melee, remain either ignorant of their true power or continue to trust in the merit of the wayward course. Nations have fallen before, and others will fall still - such is the nature of human society. We, the people of the United States however, have a choice. We can change direction or stay the course. We can continue to tighten our chains, or we can begin to loosen those bonds. The will of the people sets the course of the nation. The people's will has been to pursue comfort and security at any cost - in the long term we will lose both. We eagerly surrender power because we fear responsibility. To once again wield power, all we must do is assume responsibility. By choice, we the people have made two fatal mistakes. The fantastic thing about life is - as long as we breathe we can choose again.
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