Treason

I was told today that I was being treasonous. I overheard a group of students at my college talking about how all conspiracy theorists should be silenced, especially on the anniversaries of 9/11. Playing the devil's advocate, I said that I personally didn't believe 9/11 was an inside job, but it was an option that needed to be considered--that all possible solutions to a problem must be considered before any conclusions are reached. The student I talked to called me out on what is apparently treason: not trusting the government with a faith-like dementia. He said, "You're just as bad as the troofers. You should be put in for treason, bro."

I said this: "Maybe it's treason. I don't know. In a totalitarian dictatorship, it is treason to think. If my thinking is treason now, then I fear for what our government has become. But if my thoughts are treason, then I must embrace treason, because our country was founded on treason. Treason brings change. Change is good. Change is necessary."

After searching for words, he walked away.

Here is my urging today: stand up for what is right. Stand up against the church, the government, consumerism, and all other forms of social corruption. Tell the world that no one can tell you what to think without some damn good evidence for what they say. Be stubborn, be inquisitive, be aggressive. If any agency demands anything of you, ask them from whence comes their authority. The answer to that question is you. Power over the people comes from the people. Government can only work with the consent of the governed. You have the right to withdraw your consent. You have the right to your own humanity.

I have in front of me a reprinted letter from our third President, Thomas Jefferson:

The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts? And can history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it's motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.

That, my friends, is treason. Treason is a wonderful thing. Nationalism spawns war. Treason begets enlightenment. We need more treason in America today.