Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog [5],
In 1919, a prominent socialist named Nicholas Klein addressed the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Convention. And in describing their struggle, he told the crowd:
“First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”
(A version of this quote is frequently mis-attributed to Gandhi, though there is no evidence that Gandhi ever said this…)
Though Klein was a staunch socialist, he really hit the nail on the head.
Right now there’s an obvious trend in the West. Government insolvency is rapidly pushing those societies down the path of tyranny– drone assassinations, digital spying, pointless wars, confiscation of bank balances, capital controls, and the criminalization of everything from raw milk to collecting rain water.
The world has been here so many times before throughout history. And the trend seems so clear. Yet only a handful of people get it. Most people don’t want to hear about it. And they certainly don’t want to believe it.
You may have experienced this first hand if you’ve ever tried to talk to friends and neighbors about the fallacies of fiat currency.
They’ll probably ignore you. And they’ll probably ridicule you. They’ll accuse you of wearing a tin-foil hat and having lost your mind.
But as the trend continues, we’ll continue seeing a further deterioration in both economic fundamentals and civil liberties. And it will become apparent to everyone.
More stories will break about rampant corruption and gross surveillance. Drones will become a regular part of law enforcement. US debt will pass $20 trillion. They’ll nationalize a portion of pension funds and IRA savings.
They’ll eventually pass a law connecting tax delinquency to passport registration. Social security benefits will be scaled back. They’ll authorize themselves an Internet kill switch… and use it. A national sales tax will be unrolled, and ancillary taxes on things like mobile phone useage and air transport will go through the roof.
Civil asset forfeiture will rise dramatically, and people will have their entire life’s savings caught up in a bureaucratic death trap with no hope of due process. A budding currency crisis will substantially erode people’s standard of living.
And when it does finally become apparent to everyone, they’ll bombard you with questions about what to do… and they’ll celebrate your wisdom for having seen it coming.
An old Zen aphorism wisely states “you cannot fill a cup that is already full.” In other words, you cannot change people’s minds who choose to ignore reality.
We can only strive to be in the best possible position to help our friends, neighbors, and community when they do finally wake up. (And, perhaps occasionally, point out the obvious warning signs…)
For now, the best thing you can do is take care of yourself and your family. Get your own affairs in order. Have a plan, and begin to execute it. We’ll be no use to anyone if we’ve allowed a government to destroy our liberty and wipe out our savings.
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If you’re looking for definitive answers, I once again want to strongly encourage you to check out the video series from our recent Offshore Tactics Workshop. [6]