When the United States first conquered the American Indians, they first used military tactics to do so, then they used ‘paternalism’ to totally subjugate them. What is paternalism; freedictionary.com defines it as “the attitude or policy of a government or other authority that manages the affairs of a country, company, community, etc., in the manner of a father, especially in usurping individual responsibility and the liberty of choice.” Using paternalistic tactics, the United States government herded the Indians into reservations, took away the Indian’s means of farming or hunting to provide for themselves, forced the children into government run schools to be Americanized and provided the food for the Indians on the reservations. This demoralized the Indian people and made them completely dependent on the Great White Fathers in Washington to survive. It was also the testing ground of tactics for the government to use against the rest of the American population if necessary to exert control over them. Up to around 1870, America was still primarily an agricultural society, but with
the technological age coming to the fore, people had more leisure time to become aware of what the government was doing thru increased media exposure, more and more people started to protest what the government was doing. In addition, more people were living in cities where overcrowding, lack of jobs, racial tensions and political graft were prevalent leading to rioting. The government, by the early 1900s had to do something; the nanny state was born. The first real nanny law was enacted in 1920 when the Prohibition Act was put in force. Banning the sale and use of alcohol was the focus of this law, but it was also thought to enhance morals. During the length of this law until its repeal in 1933, the exact opposite occurred. Many young women raised their skirt hems, cut their hair and became sexually active without the benefit of marriage. Criminal activity increased substantially with the growth of liquor drinking, smuggling and manufacturing in secret; this led to the growth of gangster activity culminating during the depression when bank robbing increased exponentially. The Volstead Act was said by Herbert Hoover, "the great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose did not work.” The government looked at how they had enacted the Volstead Act and learned from their mistakes. If something were completely banned, people would actually increase their usage or finds ways to get around the ban. The government realized that instead of banning a specific habit or action, for the supposed good of the population, it was better to indoctrinate people to the so-called risks of said habits or actions. The government started using false studies and sensationalism and then passed laws incrementally to change behavior to benefit the government and control the population, of course always saying that the government only has the best interests of the people in mind. This became standard procedure and perfected as seen in the smoking issue. Tobacco use started in the Americas and spread throughout the world during the 1700s. Tobacco farming was a staple in the Midwestern/central east coast agricultural economy for two hundred years. In the late 1950’s, it was noticed that there was an increase in lung disease in people who smoked. Other factors at the time were not considered and the government started out with a notice on cigarettes that they might be hazardous to one’s health. Then the government started their anti-smoking campaign recognizing that revenue could be generated from smokers through increased taxes on the product. Study after study was done, paid for by the government and special interest groups, and lawyers fought in court intensifying the sensationalistic attention given to the issue culminating in turning many people against people who smoke; this even to the extent that children turned against their parents over smoking. The government now has their tactics down pat. American citizens would fall for anything if promoted and sensationalized right. Law after law has now been passed ‘for the good of the people’ when in actuality the people’s rights and freedoms have been eroded. From the All American Blogger.com “Do you see how one law, written for our own good, can lead to others written for our own good that, instead of protecting our rights, infringe on our rights? Again, going back to the comment from…, he shows how one law leads to another. We already have seat belt laws, so why not have helmet laws? We already have laws against trans-fat, so why not outlaw fried food? We already have laws against pot, so why not alcohol?” This quote found at AllAmericanBlogger.com says it all, “…when the law, by means of its necessary agent, force, imposes upon men a regulation of labor, a method or a subject of education, a religious faith or creed ”then the law is no longer negative; it acts positively upon people. It substitutes the will of the legislators for their own wills, the initiative of the legislator for their own initiatives. When this happens, the people no longer need to discuss, to compare, and to plan ahead, the law does all this for them. Intelligence becomes a useless prop for the people; they cease to be men; they lose their personality, their liberty, their property…anonymous.” Therein lays the rub, the removal of Americans’ liberty and freedom. As the Indians found to their dismay, The Great White Fathers in Washington D.C. are abusive parents and do not have the people’s best interests at heart. Instead, they only have their own agendas at heart, the removal of freedom and the control and of the American People. The Great White Fathers speak with forked tongue.
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