Terrorists and violent extremists are seeking to break apart our civilization and destroy the infrastructure that makes it possible. They create propaganda to try and expand their ranks and inculcate new members into their death-cult. A myth they call the “free market” is one of their primary propaganda techniques. They proclaim its superiority over civilization and say if only they could break down the infrastructure of civilization, drown it in a bathtub, the “free market” would provide a far superior way of life.
“Few ideas have more profoundly poisoned the minds of more people than the notion of a ‘free market’ existing somewhere in the universe, into which the government ‘intrudes,’” - Robert Reich
And this mind-poison is not the only kind of propaganda they employ in their attack upon civilization. They are also very fond of editing out the first half of the Second Amendment to the Constitution and proclaiming an edited version of the second half of it as the absolute right of everyone to own weapons whose only purpose is to kill other people as rapidly and effectively as possible. And they further proclaim that it is the duty of members of their death-cult to actively oppose civilization by force with these weapons if the government “intrudes” upon their lives by requiring they follow laws of civilized behavior and by requiring that they not shirk their civic contributions. They call these civic contributions “taxes” and claim that such things are akin to slavery.
But, “civic contributions” is what they really are; with them we pay for civilization. Civilization: as in all the infrastructure that surrounds and supports our existence as civilized people. Civilization requires an educational system, a transportation system, police, fire protection, disaster relief, libraries, a judicial system, scientific research… to name all of its components would take far too long, but what is common to all this infrastructure of civilization is that we all help pay for it with our civic contributions. This requires government to collect and manage the civic contributions of its citizens and to build and maintain all the infrastructure that makes civilization possible.
This terrorist death-cult worships money and all the material things money can buy. Money is it’s only value. Those with lots of it are superior “winners” and those without it are “losers,” or “takers,” or “lazy,” and are considered the enemies of the “free market” who demand more than their fair share of the hard-earned wealth garnered by leading members of the cult - who hypocritically consider this wealth to be independent of the infrastructure of civilization which has made it possible. Therefore they struggle mightily to avoid their civic contributions and, consequently, many of the wealthiest of them, and their corporations, pay little or nothing to support the civilization which made their wealth possible. The “burden” then falls upon those in the middle. And the terrorists use this injustice in their propaganda as they paint civic contributions as some kind of “burden” from which citizens should seek “relief.”
If these terrorists were merely a small band of ragtag militants spouting nonsense off in the margins of civilization we could trust our government, in the form of the police and FBI, to deal with them appropriately and keep us safe. Unfortunately this death-cult has taken over our government and now threaten the foundations of our civilization. And many of them reside quite happily in alI levels of the infrastructure of civilization, like termites infecting all the structural elements of the ship of state. We can’t trust them to protect civilization; in fact they are actively seeking to destroy it.
It is a battle at the heart of our existence as civilized people. It is a battle for power. Our government, which creates and maintains the infrastructure of civilization, is founded upon the principle that it represents “the will of the People” and grants power according to the results of popular elections. And popular elections depend upon an educated and civic minded electorate who take their jobs seriously in supporting and sustaining government and the civilization it makes possible.
The propaganda of these violent extremists who seek to bring down civilization has infected the minds of a large minority of the People. They are awash in mind-poisons and can no longer be trusted to take their civic responsibilities seriously. Fortunately they still are a minority - although the minority is large enough to seriously threaten the foundations of our civilization. And the violent extremists are working day and night to turn this minority into a majority. The situation is precarious and the fate of civilization hangs in the balance.