Rebel TV E45 Cato's Judgment: Is There Any Hope For Us?

The great defender of the Roman republic Cato, before he committed suicide rather than live under the tyranny of Caesar, told his son Marcus to seek Caesar's mercy. Upon hearing this all Marcus wanted to know was why it was right for him to accept a pardon while his father refused one. Cato is said to have replied, “I, who have been brought up in freedom, with the right of free speech, cannot in my old age change and learn slavery instead. But for you, who were both born and brought up amid such a condition, it is proper for you to now serve the divinity that now presides over your fortunes.” Cato was expressing a deep pessimism, believing the world as he knew it was dying with him. He had no hope for his son. For how could his generation fight for a freedom it had known only in the abstract, from hearsay? No doubt with tears in his eyes he told his son he had been born into slavery. He was a slave and that was all he would ever be. It was, and is, a most depressing sentiment.

I find Cato's sentiments dispiriting, for sure, but also realistic. He had spent his entire life fighting endemic corruption and warning about the coming tyranny. He was fearless and bold. But with the remnants of the Republic melting away in Africa and Caesar's army closing in, he knew the republic was over. While he would probably have received mercy from Caesar, he chose not to seek it in his defeat. I find it quite discouraging that this tireless defender of republican liberty would simply give up so completely. Why would he not try to pass the fight on to the next generation, to inspire others to take up the torch he could no longer hold high. How could he claim to embrace liberty so vehemently and then turn around and tell the next generation not to bother? But our current circumstance makes his final sentiments understandable. While I have no interest in Cato's solution, I do sometimes vacillate between fighting for what looks like a hopeless cause and just retreating as far away from the tyranny as possible.

Look at us, if we don't fit Cato's description of his son's generation, I don't know who does. Born into slavery, accepting the yoke as normal; freedom, true freedom, known only by hearsay from a disappearing history. We eagerly suck on the government teat, trading the animating contest for freedom and the risks of living that make life worthwhile for the lazy mindlessness found in government's ready embrace. How many of you live off stolen money but don't care that your sustenance is provided through immorality. How many of you are conditioned to obey the silliest rules and regulations that come from innumerable bureaucrats who claim to know everything yet know nothing? And that was before Covid! How many of you don't even think about how much money and dignity has been stolen from you? Hardly any because you keep giving it up. Do you agree with Cato that such an attitude makes it proper to serve a government that long ago broke its contract with us and now holds us in open contempt? How many of our fellow citizens are so well conditioned that rebellion does not even occur to them? Dutifully wearing their masks alone in the car. Conditioned to slavery from birth, can they even fathom what freedom would mean, and if they do, would they reject it for the safety of servitude? How about you? Are you ready to live without the safety net? No welfare, no Social Security, government health care, no FDA telling you what food is safe or OSHA telling you how to do your job? Are you willing to be totally responsible for your life? That's freedom. Can we even conceive of it anymore?

Lenin said “Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world.” President Reagan stated that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” It been almost one hundred years since Franklin Roosevelt changed the country with the New Deal, seventy years since the rise of the military industrial complex, sixty since the great society and less than twenty years of social media. And throughout that time our grandparents, parents, us, our children and grandchildren have been indoctrinated in government schools to accept and revere the ever expanding growth of government influence and power. Media, from the days of Walter Durante and Cronkite have disseminated and defended Marxist propaganda. We have all been subjected to this conditioning and it takes a lot of conscious effort and education to combat it and an even greater courage to reject its implications and effects in our lives.

The question I often ask myself is how many of my fellow citizens are left who have the will and courage to live free and fight to do so? Sure, there are a lot who give lip service or talk a good game but who really puts their money where their mouth is? Who refuses to pay for their chains, who refuses to comply with their tyrannical laws and regulations? Very few. Perhaps Cato saw something in his son Marcus that told him his son had been conditioned too deeply, that a life of liberty was beyond his comprehension, that a life of normalized servitude had made him incapable of embracing freedom and fighting for it with all his heart and soul. Perhaps Cato knew his son would fail if he tried, his courage would surely falter for his conviction was too compromised. Therefore, Cato thought it proper he simply shouldn't try. How many of our fellow citizens, our family and friends does that describe? How many of you? Are you failing already when standing against the forces of tyranny is inconvenient? When your job or ability to travel is on the line? Then how will you stand when things get really serious? Those without the courage to live free should follow Cato's advice, swallow your pride, reject your humanity and live as a slave. Samuel Adams said it best. “If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” So you need to ask yourself, who are you and what will your legacy be?