Common Sense REVISITED - (Part Three)

A Sequel to "The Law - 2024"

Continued from Part Two - As we look at the lessons taught by Thomas Paine and the updated version of “Revisited” we see a common thread. It is for this reason I have posted “The Law - 2024” and this 48 page work of Common Sense Revisited so that we can take a good close look at the alternatives before us and ask ourselves if this is better than what we have now. C.L.

The following chilling statements from top-level media insiders tell the story:

• “We are going to impose our agenda on the coverage by dealing with issues and subjects that we choose to deal with.” Richard M. Cohen, former senior producer, CBS Political News, as quoted in Losing Your Illusions, by Gordon Phillips

• “We paid $3 billion for these television stations. We will decide what the news is. The news is what we tell you it is.” David Boylan, Fox News, as quoted in Genetic Engineering, Food, and Our Environment, by Luke Anderson

• “Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have.” Richard Salant, former president, CBS News, as quoted in Losing Your Illusions, by Gordon Phillips

It is sometimes difficult to understand the mindset of people who believe they have the authority to control the minds of others in this manner. Edward L. Bernays was considered the father of modern public relations. His philosophy provides a deep insight into the thinking process…

…of those within the mass media companies, and all other surrogates, who believe that they, rather than the people, have the indigenous power. Bernays believed that he and other members of the elite were exactly the leaders needed to protect the people from their primitive, animal-like selves. Bernays and his brethren felt it was their role to “create man-made gods who assert subtle social control” to “bring order out of chaos.”

However, the ruling elite’s view of chaos is what others would call freedom. Our Founders created a country that would function like a chaordic organization, embracing both the chaos of competition and the order of cooperation. The citizens of the United States all owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Fortunately, the Founders were focused on creating a country where indigenous power was supreme. For more than 100 years, the country enjoyed freedom from rulers who think like Bernays. Unfortunately, those who share this elitist philosophy have had the upper hand for the last several decades.

It is not the intent of this publication to frighten or discourage people by describing the full extent of the growth of surrogate power, but rather to educate. Knowledge is powerful. It gives people the strength, clarity of mind, and confidence to restore their indigenous power. It is very important to focus on the positive—the growth of freedom, love, and indigenous power. At the same time, however, it is dangerous to be totally ignorant of what the proponents of surrogate power are up to.

This is a battle between force and freedom, coercion and love, darkness and light. People have to know something about the darkness before they can bring in the light, otherwise they might be tripped before making it to the light switch. Once they understand and know how to utilize their indigenous power, they cannot fail.

It could be argued that the single most important act of the Founders was to provide a sound monetary policy. Money must reflect real value. When a nation’s money has no value the people lose power; those who control the monetary system can control the government and eventually have massive influence over the country’s institutions.

The Founders clearly understood the agenda of bankers, and they frequently referred to them as “friends of paper money.” They mistrusted the Bank of England in particular, believing that even if they were successful in winning independence from England, the new country could never truly be a nation of free individuals unless it had an honest money system.

Through ignorance and apathy, former generations have allowed natural rights, liberties, and wealth to be plundered. Freedom has been handed over without resistance and paid for by voluntary tax contributions and the use of a debt-laden fiat currency.

The Founders established a system of coin money that was designed to prohibit the improper manipulation of the nation’s medium of exchange while guaranteeing the power of the citizens’ earnings. There is no more fundamental problem in the country today than the current corrupt money system. It is virtually impossible for the people to be truly prosperous with the current debt-based system. It is also virtually impossible to have true indigenous power when politicians have been given the ability to borrow unlimited amounts of money.

The federal government has departed from the principle of coin money, as defined by the U.S. Constitution and the Mint Act of 1792, and granted unconstitutional control of the nation’s monetary and banking system to the private Federal Reserve System. These violations now threaten our citizens’ economic stability and survival.

The Founders clearly understood the danger of allowing bankers to control the monetary system in this country. As James Madison wrote, “History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.”

According to John Adams, “All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.” He was right. A government managed educational system like ours will never reveal the truth about the fatally flawed monetary system. When the time comes to eliminate the current monetary system—and it will, soon—there will need to be a substantial, well-educated group of citizens ready to implement an alternative. It is absolutely essential that the people understand this subject well enough to make sure that what has happened in this country never happens again.

This cannot be a sovereign nation, nor can the people enjoy their indigenous power, when a private corporation owns the central bank that controls the money-creation process of the nation. The power that has been given to a small group of individuals is so immense that calling the nation a free country under the current circumstances is an absurdity. If you don’t believe this, please ponder these words from the President of the United States who signed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. These remarks by President Wilson obviously show that he realized he had made an enormous mistake: “A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated [in the Federal Reserve System]. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. “We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world—no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men.”

The good news is that by returning to the monetary system envisioned by the Founders, (which, I, Mark Reynolds, the poster of this work, need to interject is ONLY gold and silver coin guaranteed by Articles 1 Section 8 & 10 of the US Constitution. NOTHING else. No Bitcoin, no paper money whatsoever! ) inflation and potentially all federal taxes, including the income tax, can be eliminated. By not requiring the federal government to borrow from the private Federal Reserve (instead, having the federal government re-assume its constitutional prerogative to create its own money), people would no longer have to pay interest on money they created themselves. The nation’s people could also gain the right to charge commercial banks throughout the country a modest interest (say, 3 percent) on funds which they then loan to their customers. This interest, paid to the federal government, would be sufficient to pay for the essential, and constitutional, services provided by the federal government. There would be no need for an income tax, national retail sales tax, or any other kind of federal tax. This plan is fully explained by W. Cleon Skousen in The Urgent Need for Comprehensive Monetary Reform. This is just one of many proposed bottom-up solutions.

The following list of the current taxes provides a perspective of what has happened since the advent of the Federal Reserve. None of these taxes existed before the monetary and economic policies created under the influence of the owners of the Federal Reserve: federal income tax, federal unemployment tax (FUTA), dog license tax, fishing license tax, food license tax, fuel permit tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, IRS interest charges (tax on top of tax), IRS penalties (tax on top of tax), liquor tax, luxury tax, marriage license tax, Medicare tax, property tax, real estate tax, service charge taxes, Social Security tax, road usage tax (truckers), sales taxes, recreational vehicle tax, school tax, state income tax, state unemployment tax (SUTA), telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal universal service fee tax, telephone surcharge taxes, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax, telephone state and local tax, telephone usage charge tax, utility tax, vehicle license registration tax, vehicle sales tax, watercraft registration tax, well permit tax, and workers compensation tax.

It is a daunting list. Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, when the nation was the most prosperous in the world. There was no national debt, the middle class was the largest in the world, and one parent could stay home to raise the children and police the neighborhoods.

The people are endowed with life, liberty, property, and the right to pursue happiness. It is up to them, however, to care for the needy, the sick, the homeless, the aged, and those who are otherwise unable to care for themselves. It is an American tradition and the natural inclination of humans to help those in need.

As the nation shifts from a top-down model to a bottom up model, the people will develop the institutions necessary to take care of everyone in need. These institutions existed in this country in the past and they can be recreated very quickly. However, these institutions should never be based on the principle of force.

Forced charity is an oxymoron. It is impossible to feel charitable when the government is confiscating money from one family to give it to another—especially when the federal government keeps over two-thirds of what is budgeted for welfare for its own bureaucracy. Right now, 72 percent of the federal tax money that goes to federal welfare programs stays with the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.!83 That is right, only 28 percent goes to the people who are supposed to get help. On the other hand, 75 to 80 percent of the money raised by many private charities goes directly to the people they are helping. (These numbers were current when this was written in 2008. I am sure they are worse now. C.L.)

What does common sense reveal about those numbers? A system based on local, private, or faith-based organizations will do a much better job of taking care of those in need than the system in place today, and it will do so at a much lower cost.

It is amazing that food stamps have a depiction of the Founding Fathers signing the Declaration of Independence. What could be more ironic than linking dependency on the federal government for food with the independence for which our Founders fought? Redirecting resources from wasteful government bureaucracies to private organizations and local entities will provide for the basic needs of the people, without the federal government’s involvement.

In many cases, federal welfare provisions are not only misdirected, but morally destructive. Poverty has increased as freedom has decreased. If you want to reduce poverty, you must increase freedom. This is a natural law proven over and over again throughout 5,000 years of history. Everything done through the government that could be done privately increases government power, raises taxes, and reduces freedom and opportunity.

Again we reach the end of the limit or close there of or maybe even past that point that Substack wants you to go due to Email length constraints. So from here we will go to Part Four. I hope you’ve been hanging in there and learning a lesson that needs to be learned. C.L.

PART FOUR