Got an email today from a friend who is very upset about the impending smoking bans, with these questions:

WHY AREN'T PEOPLE JUST AS ANGRY AS ME?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM?

Those are relevant, important questions that I ask myself frequently. As a libertarian actively working with people who have been or are being trampled by government, I've heard those questions many times.

• I've heard them from mothers and wives of men in prison for very long terms for using marijuana.
  
• I've heard them from homeowners who've just become aware that their city is going to take their homes.
  
• I've heard them from business owners who are being zoned out of business.
  
• I've heard them from divorced fathers who can't see their children.
  
• I've heard them from people who realize how rigged our elections have become.
  
• I've heard them from those who understand that we're simply destroying the people of Iraq.

Is the answer to those questions as dismal as economist and historian Robert Higgs suggests?

[S]o few people in the United States now really give a damn about living as free men and women. After a century of fighting a losing battle against their own governments, they have accommodated themselves to the government’s victory.

I'm positive that some people feel that way. They tell themselves that if they can be personally "successful", that's good enough... even if they can actually feel their freedoms sliding away from them. I have a hunch that if some of those people were convinced that the U.S. were to become a police state in 2050, they would begin preparing to "succeed" within a police state rather than work to prevent it from happening.

I once sold life insurance. Trying to sell freedom is very similar. Very few people are willing to even think about death, and very few are willing to work to keep their freedoms intact. It's just much easier to ignore the problem until it becomes more "real". There is another similarity. You buy life insurance on your own life to benefit someone else you care about. The policy won't benefit you... you'll be dead. When some people realize that, the subject is closed... they don't care what happens after they're dead. Many feel the same way about freedom; if they can get through life unscathed, that's all they care about. Most of us believe that bad things only happen to other people... and that if we're careful, we can get by.

A lot of people DO get by, but there are also a lot of people who DON'T, and that group is on the increase. Every year, even more people get "nailed" by something they thought only happened to other people. Every year the odds get worse. Every year our nation is in greater danger of grinding to a halt, handicapped by ever-increasing taxes, diminished by supporting an ever-increasing prison population, and crippled by more laws and regulations to run afoul of.

To the questions "WHY AREN'T PEOPLE JUST AS ANGRY AS ME? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM?" I must answer with another question:

Were you as angry before your OWN liberties were in jeopardy? Very likely not, so should you expect others to be different?

Those of us who pay attention to our liberties and the continual attack on them could, if it were physically possible, be angry all the time. The battle never ends, but one cannot live with anger on a continuing basis. Anger is eventually replaced by frustration, depression, and, hopefully, a resolute determination to continue to resist.

There simply is no question that if our nation doesn't wake up and pay attention that we are going to self-destruct. If we continue on the path of our past 70 years, our personal liberties will vanish completely and we'll be helpless subjects of a mammoth military totalitarian state. If you can't see that coming by now, you're just not paying attention.

There is one, and only one, solution... we have to bring our government to heel. We have to reestablish the people as the masters of this nation, and put our public servants back into their proper role. I will say, as I've said so many times before, that the simplest way to accomplish that is to REFUSE to vote for anyone running for the two major parties. Stop settling for the lesser of two evils... stop accepting ANY candidate who favors powerful government. Don't delude yourself into believing that the mess we're in was caused by ONE of those two parties. They share blame... so evenly that I can't even tell you which one is the "lesser".