My Cup of Tea

My Cup of Tea

Unless you have been in a coma, it is hard to escape all the talk about the Tea Party phe­nom­ena. Peo­ple are get­ting tired of gov­ern­ment waste and abuse. Frankly, I’m sur­prised it took this long. The Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence states that, “…and accord­ingly all expe­ri­ence hath shewn that mankind are more dis­posed to suf­fer, while evils are suf­fer­able than to right them­selves by abol­ish­ing the forms to which they are accus­tomed.” The evils to which we are accus­tomed are no longer suf­fer­able. It does not take gov­ern­ment to decide when its evils are insuf­fer­able; or even to decide what the Peo­ple con­sider evils, but each indi­vid­ual suf­fer­ing under the sys­temic denial of their nat­ural, unalien­able rights to reach a point where they say, “Enough!”

Even though the Tea Party phe­nom­ena is a good start­ing point, it relies upon peo­ple gath­er­ing together to express their dis­con­tent. The adage, “there is strength in num­bers” may hold true, but there must first be strength within. What hap­pens when the Tea Party par­tic­i­pants have dis­banded and go back to their daily rou­tine? The strength of their col­lec­tive body is dis­persed to the respec­tive indi­vid­u­als; often to be remanded back into the despo­tism from which they crawled for a moment of out­rage. They resign to pay oblig­a­tory homage to the State, mind their busi­ness, pledge their alle­giance, and com­ply with every reg­u­la­tory edict that may inject itself into their pri­vate affairs. The State is none the worse for the momen­tary dis­play of petu­lance from its conscripts.

If one is to take a hon­est assess­ment of their con­science, beliefs, and morals they would be hard-pressed to accede that what gov­ern­ment does is in har­mony with why it was first cre­ated. Many, I posit, are so pre­oc­cu­pied and dis­tracted by the day-to-day demands upon their senses for main­tain­ing their bur­den­some debt that they give lit­tle thought, if any, to just how lit­tle auton­omy they actu­ally pos­sess. There are move­ments afoot where some States are propos­ing bills which pur­port to assert the State’s sov­er­eignty under the Tenth Amend­ment; which unfor­tu­nately has been all but evis­cer­ated thanks to the States hav­ing become fed­eral munic­i­pal­i­ties through the dis­burse­ment of fed­eral monies to sup­plant the reserved pow­ers of the States. Yes, you have even been com­pro­mised by your State leg­is­la­tures who exer­cised con­trol over you by pan­der­ing to Uncle Sam for the spoils which had pre­vi­ously been extracted from you through fraud and coer­cion. How these States will sub­stan­ti­ate their sov­er­eignty with tainted hands dyed green from the Fed­eral Reserve’s worth­less script, or red from the United States’ impe­r­ial aggres­sion world­wide, is yet to be seen. It is never too late for change.

Regard­less, none of this is worth­while with­out a fun­da­men­tal change within our own minds. There is needed, a par­a­digm shift in the way we rea­son. Gov­ern­ment is not some­thing that exists in per­pe­tu­ity. It requires peo­ple; peo­ple to lend their con­sent; peo­ple to sub­mit to that author­ity; peo­ple to occupy the offices; peo­ple to oppress other peo­ple. It is all a game. An often vio­lent and oppres­sive game,but a game nonethe­less. If you want to iden­tify the cause for all your suf­fer­ing you need only to gaze upon yourself.

I held my own Tea Party some time ago. The only par­tic­i­pant was myself. There was dis­cord between my con­science and the innu­mer­able demands placed upon me by exter­nal restraint and com­pul­sion. I stepped out­side myself and took a crit­i­cal assess­ment. I was not pleased. Much of what I had done in the past was done through infor­ma­tion handed down by oth­ers no more invested in their lives than I had been. It was hearsay, pre­sump­tion, and igno­rance. When I asked about the “why” I was to com­ply with edicts, there was never rea­son­ing founded upon moral­ity or jus­tice, but upon what would hap­pen to me if I did not obey. The truth is, we live under the threat of force, fear, and oppres­sion. We are not truly free, we are free as long as we obey.

Each one of us has to come to terms with how we either sub­mit or rule in our own lives. Over a year ago I took the steps to remove my con­sent, express or implied, from being a sub­ject under this fes­ter­ing despo­tism I see before me. I have authored a Dec­la­ra­tion which makes unequiv­o­cal state­ments to the world as to who I say I am and where my author­ity over my life derives. I have divested myself of the sub­ju­ga­tion imposed upon me by way of my past igno­rance. I can walk proudly and hon­estly, with­out fear, and con­front so-called author­ity that believes it has acquired some law­ful right to com­pel my alle­giance. After send­ing a copy to the City of Collinsville, the then-Mayor, Stan Scha­ef­fer, issued a memo iden­ti­fy­ing me as a pos­si­ble “threat” because of my promise to exer­cise my nat­ural right to self-defense. This men­tal­ity is preva­lent in gov­ern­ment insti­tu­tions. Gov­ern­ment actors do not like indi­vid­u­als who have lost their fear and con­front their lies. They do not fear me as much as the mes­sage I offer tak­ing hold in the minds of other free-thinking indi­vid­u­als. That was my cup of tea.

I still wait for sup­posed rulers to com­pel me to obey. I have made my Dec­la­ra­tion and stand by it, to the end, if need be. If this causes gov­ern­ment actors some dis­com­fort then it is within their minds such dis­com­fort orig­i­nates. I am a peace­able man, but will defend myself against aggres­sion. I am not to be ruled by any man, or group of men, with­out my explicit con­sent. This is where we all find our­selves today. Tea Par­ties are a good start, but until you pos­sess the temer­ity, resolve, bel­liger­ence, and tenac­ity to stand upon your nat­ural, Creator-derived rights, you are noth­ing but a sub­ject. There is no strength in num­bers, when the indi­vid­u­als amongst such ranks are liv­ing in fear and igno­rance. You can read about my jour­ney, and my Dec­la­ra­tion, at http://www.markmccoy.com. You can start by free­ing your­self, which is only a thought away.