We’re more sensible now. We don’t live our lives as much as we arrange them and organize them. B follows A. D follows C. We take our medicine and our shots because the doctor says so.
We’re careful, because accidents happen.
We don’t say what’s on our minds a lot of the time, because other people might pass that on, and who knows? We might get into trouble.
But once upon a time, when we were young, we were free. We didn’t take any shots, and when we got sick we recovered. We were stronger than kids are now. We didn’t ask for much protection and we weren’t given much, and we survived.
There was no talk about the needs of the group. When we went to school, we weren’t told about ways we could help others. That was something we learned at home. We weren’t taught about The Planet. Instead, we learned to mind our own business, and it wasn’t considered a crime.
When we played games, adults weren’t hovering or coaching every move we made. We found places to play on our own, and we figured it all out. There were winners and losers. There were no plastic trophies. We played one game, then another. We lost, we won. We competed. Losing wasn’t a tragedy.
There were no childhood “conditions” like ADHD or Bipolar, and we certainly didn’t take any brain drugs. The idea of a kid going to a psychiatrist would have been absurd.
People were who they were. They had lives. They had personalities. They had eccentricities, and we lived with that.
There was far less whispering and gossip. There were fewer cliques. Kids didn’t display their possessions like signs of their identity. A kid who did was ignored, even shunned.
Kids never acted like little adults. They didn’t dress like adults. They didn’t want to be fake adults.
Our parents didn’t coddle us. We weren’t bribed so we would act decently.
We weren’t “extra-special.” We weren’t delicate.
No one kept asking us about our feelings. If they had, we would have been confused. Feelings? What’s that? We were alive. We knew it. We didn’t need anything else.
We could spot liars a mile away. We could spot phonies from across town. We knew who the really crazy adults were, and we stayed away from them.
We didn’t need gadgets and machines to be happy. We only needed a place to play. And if you wanted a spot to be alone, you found one, and you read a book.
There was no compulsion to “share.”
School wasn’t some kind of social laboratory or baby-sitting service. We were there to learn, and if we worked hard, we did. Teachers knew how to teach. The textbooks were adequate. Whether the books were new or old didn’t matter.
Kids weren’t taught how to be little victims.
Sex was a private issue. You were taught about that at home or not at all. You certainly didn’t learn about it in school. That would have been ridiculous.
Some of us remember being young, and now, we still have that North Star. We still don’t take our shots and medicines. We still don’t take every word a doctor says as coming from God. We still know losing isn’t a crime or an occasion for tragic theater.
We still know how to be alone. We still think gossip and cliques are for morons. We still feel free. We still want to live, and we do.
We still resent intrusion on our freedom, and we speak up and draw the line. We still like winning and competing. We still like achieving on our own.
We can spot self-styled messiahs at a hundred yards.
As kids, we lived in our imaginations, and we haven’t forgotten how. It’s part of who and what we are.
We aren’t bored every twelve seconds. We can find things to do.
We don’t need reassurances every day. We don’t need people hovering over us. We don’t need to whine and complain to get attention. We don’t need endless amounts of “support.”
We don’t need politicians who lie to us constantly, who pretend we’re stupid. We don’t need ideology shoved down our throats. Our ideology is freedom. We know what it is and what it feels like, and we know no one gives it to us. It’s ours to begin with. We can throw it away, but then that’s on us.
If two candidates are running for office, and we don’t like either one, we don’t vote. We don’t need to think about that very hard. It’s obvious. Two idiots, two criminals? Forget it. Walk away.
We don’t fawn, we don’t get in other people’s way. We don’t think “children are the future.” Every generation is a new generation. It always has been. We don’t need to inject some special doctrine to pump up children. We remember what being a child is. That’s enough.
When we were kids, there was no exaggerated sense of loyalty. We were independent. Now, we see what can be accomplished in the name of obligation, group-cohesion, and loyalty: crimes; imperial wars; destruction of natural rights.
It didn’t take a village to raise a kid when we were young, and it doesn’t take one now. That’s all propaganda. It panders to people who are afraid to be what they are, who are afraid to stand up for themselves.
We can see what indoctrination creates. It creates the perception of endless numbers of helpless victims. And once that’s firmly entrenched, then magically, the endless parade of victims appears, ready-made. When some needs have been met, that’s never enough, so other needs are born. The lowest form of hustlers sell those needs from here to the sky and beyond. They make no distinction between people who really can use help and those who are just on the make.
We didn’t grow up that way. We don’t fall for the con now.
When we were kids, the number of friends we had didn’t matter. We didn’t keep score. Nobody kept track of the count. That would have been recognized in a second as a form of insanity.
As kids, we didn’t admire people simply because other people admired them. That was an unknown standard.
We were alive. That was enough. We were free. That was enough.
It still is.
When we were young, we had incredible dreams. We imagined the dreams and imagined accomplishing them. Some of us still do. Some of us still work in that direction. We haven’t given up the ghost just because the world is mad.
The world needs to learn what we know. We don’t need to learn what the world has been brainwashed into believing.
Once we were free, and we still are.
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/once-when-we-were-free-3/
Sorry John I hear you, but I hear bitching. You are of my fathers generation and mother too. Those of us under 30 really had no doing in this for the most part. But here we are and I’m ready to pitch in and start scrubbing and cleaning up. Actually I’m happy to. But in my opinion for all the faults and finger pointing that people like John reminisce about in the age is the reason people my age are so god dam retarded. John your people raised us kids !?! You get what you put in so I just want to say most people slightly older and all of them younger are so bucked up it ain’t even funny, it’s sad and it’s why those of us who still believe in the BoR and Freedom and Liberty have to fight so hard to get these according to you common child knowledge across now a days. I get JR is satire and I do respect and read his meterial but stfu and do something about it. John R maybe instead of hiding your message under the guise of satire come out like a man and say it plain and clear like you all supposivly did as a kid. Mind you I graduated in 08 and voted for Ron Paul which I know now was fruitless but I didn’t tow the line all these decades to get where we all are today. Y’all gettin me ? Hey check this i got to go, work physical labor — imagine that.
I’m not pointing the finger at everyone especially all my friends here fttwr. But in general all these partners had all these kids and it was the parent who had to sign the form for this psych med, the parent had to sign up for the kid to spend every day IN A STATIST RUN SCHOOL. So John I give to you my rebuttal: what the duck were you smoking while all this was going on ?
Well put, Cleatus, and you are absolutely correct in your analogy and it goes back further than you know, generation after generation, incrementally men and women have betrayed their children in their pursuit and worship of mammon. A little compromise always leads to a lot.
I’m proud to have you among us.
Hey there H, just saw this. I appreciate your well organized thought and everything you do. I’m proud to be here. Happy to help. Divide and Conquor. Blk be white Muslim vs Christian mom v daughter etc. it’s very clear these days.
I certainly can understand and envision the contrasts JonRap has related in this article, and, to a great degree, he has pointed out a goodly portion of America’s pre- Communist societal strengths and post- Communist societal weaknesses. My concern, as I read this however, was that in citing the pre-Communist strengths, there was no mention of his generation’s Faith in The Lord Jesus Christ, something that without which, any nation is doomed to failure. The failure of our nation is in great part due to its apathy and hostility toward God Almighty, and its ignorance of Scriptural Truth. A culture that looks to its own strength and understanding to guide itself into a prosperous and free future is a nation of fools, who are presenting themselves as an offering to the wolves of the world. There is NO substitute for the guidance offered by a loving Heavenly Father in warning, correcting and disciplining either a single man, or a nation.
Additionally, I noticed a dearth of support for the Bill of Rights and basic teachings of the proper forms of our governmental bodies in the previous generations… Something we here at The Trenches embody every day in our speech and correspondence to others. Had the previous generations held fast to the political structure of our nation as it was laid out, and spoken to each other as we do here, it would have been impossible to brainwash the entire culture into stupidity.
To sum it up:
A nation, even the strongest, wealthiest and most stable will not long endure in Liberty if it A) Dismisses and ignores the guidance freely offered by Almighty God, and whose people reject the new life offered through Jesus Christ.
B) Refuses to retain the principles of Freedom and Liberty as of utmost importance in societal discourse, and stand guard to watch and rule over the nation’s servants, lest they usurp their masters’ role and begin to become the rulers instead of the servants.
THAT is where the previous generations failed our nation. Now we have the opportunity to correct their shortcomings. Let us fight with determination and confidence, knowing that Almighty God stands ready to come to the aid of those who fear Him and reverence His NAME.
LORD; we ask you forgive the shortcomings and sin of our forebears, and free our nation from the curse by your Grace and Mercy. Be our strength and our guard, and help us to take back this once-free land from the criminals and devils who have stolen the gifts you gave to our nation and its people.
Amen.
We once elected presidents and congress now they are selected for us….. The bottom-line….
Another excellent Rappaport article that leaves me feeling nostalgic.