Barry Hasan Durmaz

America in her 200-year founding era (1620-1820) is evidence of a body of people who astonished the world in the art of thinking, and that governmentally. Thinking is literally a life or death skill—life being the freeman and death being the slavish mentality. Either by force or threat of force, being subject to the will of another is a form of slavery. Slavery or indentured servitude through bureaucratic agencies is not the American way, except as punishment for a crime.

The casual observer to the American Revolution will conclude that it was a rebellion against the British king. However, the thoughtful student of America’s history will recognize a good ten years of documented evidence culminating in the Declaration of 1776—evidence of thinking and reasoning governmentally with those who opposed America’s self-governing status.

The point—taking up arms is not the first response to evil; self-government is. That is America’s legacy—controlling oneself before confronting evil.

The man and woman who can think independently from others, but never independent from the “Supreme Judge of the world”,  is the free individual—that’s liberty. It’s not the person who is taught what to think who is free, but how to think as the foundation for freedomship, leadership, and true governance. This is why I love America the world over. Defend her I will to my death and have done so to personal loss.

The kind of thinking in America I have come to love is the art of thinking governmentally. It’s asking the KEY question: “Who or what is in control?” When you read the Declaration of ’76, the inescapable facts to a candid world is that God the Lawgiver is the One Who is in control, “…with firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence….”

America’s Declaration is not an anarchist’s violence, but a thoughtfully written shift from dependence upon one government, a human king, to dependence upon the government of heaven, the divine King of kings. That Sovereign is the basis for America’s limited, constitutional government, attested to and signed “…in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America….”

From this historical back drop, why is thinking governmentally so important to societal well-being in America today? It’s a matter of liberty unto life, the absence of which is tyranny unto slavery.

The pernicious evils of socialism, and now communism, cannot exist except where the people refuse to think (to govern) for themselves. I live in a country where the evils of socialism prevail in modern society. Socialism is not American. It is part and parcel of the Old World of Europe and therefore an enemy to our way of life.

What is socialism? The simplest definition: state government doing things for people. And why is the nature of socialism evil? Because this form of government wants to provide for me and take care of me by force and threat of force. That, my friend, is evil.

The antidote to such evil was immersing myself in America’s founding-era history. I learned as an adult what I was never taught in state schools—that the idea of America is self-government.

The gold of historical truth that Americans love their liberty to govern themselves welled up in me to such proportions that I shouted, “I have to live this way! I will be an authentic American patriot no matter the cost!”

I began to think for myself the number of activities state government is doing for me. From the womb to the tomb, it’s a lot, which means there is very little legitimate activity left for me to govern. That is not the “pursuit of happiness” and therefore not American, yet deep on the inside I know I am American. Therefore, I will cut the external strings of modern entanglements that make me dependent upon complete strangers for my well-being and welfare.

I will be responsible for my life and not expect strangers in uniforms and with administrative procedures to do for me what the Author of liberty commands of me.

I began to exercise my liberty to govern myself. To think as a self-governed American requires a three-fold criteria:

1. Cause and effect

2. Bottom up

3. Internal to external

This three-fold criteria is summed up in the KEY question: Who or what is in control?

Is man in control or is the only Lawgiver in control of all things?

America must be defended by thinking and acting governmentally. Doing so deals a death blow to the evils of socialism, communism, and every form of man-made rule over my life. It’s a treacherous path, but one that is glorious unto casting hope to this world that there is but one Supreme Judge of the world.