Top Twenty Political Songs of All Time

All right kids, here's a less serious blog from me, just for fun.  Have a look and offer your thoughts. I sort of put these in order, but they are all very powerful in their own right - it's not fair to say that one is better than the other, really.

1)Guns Before Butter - Gang of Four

2)London Calling - The Clash

3)Smallpox Champion - Fugazi

4)God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols

5)That's Entertainment - The Jam

6)Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

7)Suggestion - Fugazi

8)Flap - Stanford Prison Experiment

9)I Love A Man In Uniform - Gang of Four

10)A-bomb in Wardour Street - The Jam

11)All Along the Watchtower - Hendrix version

12)Fight the Power - Public Enemy

13)Reclamation - Fugazi

14)Do Not Consider Yourself Free - Embrace

15)Firestorm/Forged in the Flames - Earth Crisis

16)Get Up, Stand Up - Bob Marley & The Wailers

17)Anarchy in the U.K. - Sex Pistols

18)Revolution - The Beatles

19)Aggression - Ignite

20)Break Down the Walls - Youth of Today

 

Collectivism Kills

In such an overwhelming portion of human tragedy, we find that one form of collectivism or another is essentially the prevailing zeitgeist which serves as the justification behind these horrors. From the Soviet gulag to the Nazi gas chamber, from the KKK lynching to the wars of nationalism, we find that a variant of collectivist thought was the cognitive framework for both the people in power as well as the populace who allowed it to happen. It is the same drive behind the terrorist who commits suicide to murder others. The drive is for the "collective good." It is for the "glory of our nation." It can be the "greatness of the Fatherland", the "preservation of our race", or even "the posterity of our republic." Each time human beings forget the rights of the individual - each time they reject the inescapable truth that each human being is unique and has a will of their own - we sacrifice the dignity of the human condition for the irrational, grandiose designs for either those in power or those whom we perceive to be worthy of our allegiance. I urge each and every one of you to always remember this: you are the master of your life and the master of no one else. Even the slave or the prisoner of war has some degree of choice in their actions. Human beings have set themselves on fire to protest the actions of a tyrannical government. Human beings have sat down in the street while a tank is about to run them over in defiance of tyranny. Human beings have demonstrated their will even against their own survival instinct. It is from this truism that we must reject all forms of coercive collectivism: racism, nationalism, communism, socialism, fascism, ethnocentrism, sexism, chauvinism, ageism, and the list goes on.

Just Say No to the State

In general, Americans tend to look to the state for their answers. By the state, I primarily mean the Federal government. If there is a social ill, such as drug abuse, Americans believe that outlawing drug use will stop it. They believe that drug offenders should be locked away permanently after "three strikes". When the economy goes bad, they blindly parrot the idiot mainstream press and blame the market for government depredations. They look to a small group of people (Obama and his advisers) for answers to questions they cannot possibly know. Central planners cannot predict the needs of the many - only the free actions of human beings in the marketplace can do that. Following 9/11, Americans refused to accept that our foreign policy over the last fifty years has engendered hatred for us across the globe. Americans again look to the coercive power of the state to protect us. What does government do? It took away our liberties and made itself larger and more powerful. Instead of looking to the airlines to protect their own planes, we look to the government to answer our problem. Instead of arming ourselves - we look to a centralized protector to do everything for us. When will we realize that terrorists' greatest advantage is the fact that they are highly decentralized. What would they do (or most criminals, for that matter) if most Americans armed themselves and protected each other from those who would initiate aggression? The citizens would have the advantage. I am not arguing for anarchy. The state does have legitimate roles to play. Primarily, it should protect the rights of the individual - namely, life, liberty, and justly acquired property (among others). However, when we look to state for ALL of the answers, we will begin to see that it dominates our lives. Any government powerful enough to give you what you want is powerful enough to take it all away. Let's focus on the human spirit and individual freedom. There is so much that we can do when we are free to act as we see fit. The only time government should get involved in our lives is when someone violates someone else's rights. Just say "no" to the state!