Richard Mitchell Quote

"Rousseau had it backwards. We are NOT born free. We are born in the chains of the random and the reflexive, and are ignorant and unreasonable by simple nature. We must learn to be free, to organize the random and detect the reflexive, to acquire the knowledge of particulars and the powers of reason. The examined life is impossible if we cannot examine, order, classify, define, distinguish, always in minute particulars."

by:	Richard Mitchell (1929-2002) Professor at Glassboro State College, NJ, author, founder and publisher of The Underground Grammarian
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Categories:	Education, Freedom, Knowledge, Learning, Perseverance, Reason, Responsibility, Sovereignty, Wisdom
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An excellent expression of truth. Unusually fine observation seldom realized by even good thinkers.  -- Dick Trice, Fort Worth      1
-- Dave, Kent, WA
A dogma of humanist religion used in usurpation by enslaving statist theocracies. We are free with inalienable rights at law by our most simple nature and must acquire the knowledge of particulars and the powers of reason and otherwise to throw off the tyranny of designing despots professing such bile as expressed in this quote. The socialists and other malefactors will illuminate themselves by giving here, admiring superlatives and ratings.  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
We ARE born free with inalienable rights endowed by the Almighty God Himself. We are at first ignorant of the designs and mechanisms used by man to enslave others. We must learn not how to become free but how to keep freedom, how to throw off the yoke and break the chains of oppressive and overbearing measures set by our peers and passed down from the previous generation. Examing, ordering, classifying, defining, and distinguishing in the most minute particulars are the actions of a despotic and tyrannical government not the work of a representative republic of free people.  -- Publius      1
"We must learn to be free, to organize the random and detect the reflexive...". When I try to detect my thought reflexes, I'm always amazed at how thoughtless I truly am. Much of my day is spent with a limited number of habitual notions . . .If everyone behaved similarly (and I don't think I'm alone), it's pretty amazing that America came into being at all. It takes an amazing effort and sustained focus to change. Many thanks to Liberty Tree. Today's quotations are especially inspiring!  -- Byron, Fort Collins, CO      2
About time we had a quote that blasted the myth of being born free - well done RM. The history of America is genocide this is why we do nothing to prevent genocide in other countries - its their resources we want not to promote freedom - what a joke to humanity. The USA foreign policy is criminal and that's why they get out of any accord or treaty. And yet we sit on our sofas twiddling our fingers and do nothing.  -- Robken
Mike, when will you stop this stupid rhetoric "We are free with inalienable rights at law" and realize that it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with inalienable rights, it has all to do with reality - your words are empty with moral and ethical action, and lately there is very, very, little of that in America. America has become very evil and its time for action that may, just, bring us closer to our inalienable rights. God has nothing to do with being born free what a load of &%^$. This is the kind of rhetoric that creates division and hatred - WE ARE BORN INTO CHAINS AND OUR LIFE IS SPENT WITH AN HACKSAW .  -- Robken
WE ARE BORN INTO A TRIBE!!!!!  -- Robken
Robken, thank you for proving absolutely substantive and true my comment. Your humanist dogmas through a statist theology would be thee National establish of religion. This is the kind of rhetoric that creates division and hatred. Zealots of most individual religious bands: Christians, Muslims, etc. make your identical claim. I was born free and have learned how not to participate in most reindeer games. Being free, allows me to serve all my brothers and sisters with charity, greater abundance, and clarity of purpose. I tried the hacksaw approach and, it was an endless exercise in futility. The system is corrupt to the core and no matter how deep you cut, it doesn't get any easier, less polluted, or free. Only when I came to the realization that I am free and was born that way, not imprisoned by my mental acceptance of the mushroom (I'm planted in the dark and only exist when others mandate &%$ be piled on me), did I discover what true freedom was. I started to act, as is averse to being acted upon. I am not a victim of circumstance, I am an individual sovereign. I understand your mushroom mentality and reality and how anything else to you seems like stupid rhetoric; that's really to bad, because, it is FANTASTIC to be free.  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
Man is born in an environment defined for him by those who designed and constructed it. Therefore, there is no justifiable claim of being 'born free'. In stead, we are compelled to accept current subjectivities or replace them with ours. Michael A. Church  -- Anonymous, Grenada
I was watching "60 Minutes" last night. They did an article or expose on a group or tribe called "Soverign Citizens". What remains of them anyway, it seems many of them have been caught shooting and killing cops and have been killed in return. Anyway most of them sound just like Mike of Norwalk, Interesting quote!  -- Waffler, Smith      2
Waffler, how do the individuals of your subject rant sound like me? Are you trying to redefine the term 'Sovereign', or 'Citizen' or, is your ad homenim simply attempting to broaden or redefine the criminal misuse of the phrase to cover all of the de jure supreme nobles of a representative republic. Though I believe cops are among the lowest dregs, power mongers, and slime, despotism has to offer, capital punishment is a very specific act, befitting a very specific crime. Murder does not befit the crime of enforcing non-lethal tyranny. I am an advocate of law and justice with rules of criminal and civil procedure. Shooting and killing cops is, or should be, a capital offense.  -- Mike, Norwalk      2
Anon from Grenada...The very ability to make a choice between the current subjectives or replacing them with your own is the very act of freedom. Every living person has this freedom. We can all choose to reveal what we believe our rights are and defend them or stand idle and allow those rights to only exist in our fantasies. This decision does not come without consequences, millions that have chosen to defend their freedom have payed the ultimate price doing so. But every one of them died free, refusing to walk the line drawn by a few "intellectual elites".  -- Publius      1
We are all born as free thinkers. We make our own decisions. At times we must decide between obedience or resistance; to do what you are told or do what you know is right. The very act of making either choice is an act of liberty. If you make the wrong choice, it will be your final one. Liberty is not something that can be denied or taken away by a powerful and victorious aggressor; it can only be lost, given up, by a cowardice and ignorant people.  -- Publius      1
You have answered your own question Mike. The members of the so called "Soverign Citizens" sound a prosyeltize just like your comment above.  -- Waffler, Smith      1
Wow, insightful comments. I understand Mike's premise that we are born with the RIGHTS to be free, but I agree with Richard Mitchel in that we are born dependent and vulnerable -- we may be 'free' but we have not yet learned how to stay that way. From Mike's argument, even a prisoner is free, but from a practical point of view, the prisoner is indeed a prisoner, he is oppressed despite his right to be free. Since Freedom requires Responsibility, I agree with the premise that we must liberate ourselves from the dependence upon others, we must liberate ourselves from childish delusions and awaken to truth, we must liberate ourselves from those that have managed to yoke us, and we must constantly defend our Liberty. In a way, Mike, your argument treats Freedom as an 'entitlement' but I would argue that Liberty requires effort and diligence -- something we can't do yet as infants. I agree that my rights to my own freedom are inherent and inalienable, BUT it is still my responsibility to act in accordance with the natural laws of freedom, to wit, that our freely chosen actions do indeed have consequences and that we must ever be wary of freely walking down a road that leads to our own servitude. Freemen or sovereign citizens are indeed rare even though ALL of us are born with the right to be so.  -- E Archer, NYC      1
Waffler, please try and be a little more coherent, even specific. WHAT ? To what was I proselytizing (I think that was your rant)? Are you saying I would do . . . ? WHAT ? ? ?  -- Mike, Norwalk
Archer, I'm on the road right now but will answer in more detail when I get home next week. I believe all matter (what ever that might be - a whole ancient Hebrews study thing outside many of today's churches interpretations) is eternal (without beginning or end) with an expressing aura (law) unique to the whole organized being. Matter organized into the image of God (man) then has natural material locutions as a being (rights) with an innate justice. Choice with in this dimension of existence is paramount in developing Godly attributes (love, truth, etc. - man being a steward) Freedom is not an entitlement but rather, the innate expression of the being. From birth, we grow in learning, through choices, through child(ish), philosophies of men, self serving, etc. delusions, through awakening to truth, love, etc. in essence, learning greater and more accurate expressions of that which we already are (free) I was looking back and going to court continually fighting the despotism, atrocities, and other liberty robbing activities of government, I had more successes than failures but came to the conclusion that it really didn't matter much because the statist theocracy with its patrons was going to do what ever it wanted. Not until I decided not to focus on the ills of society, correcting the wrongs or look back but,to go forward in the 'I am' did I truly realize what freedom was. Sort of, you can't change the environment to change the person, you have to change the person and the person will change the environment. I can be in jail and be free (which really ticks them off). I know this is a lot scatted and I really haven't answered the freedom question, it needs a lot more foundation. I'll get back to you on it later.  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
Archer...You are correct that Freedom does require a great deal of responsibility. All of the things that you have listed that we must liberate ourselves from are indeed fights that we must win to continue in liberty. But in doing so, we are not claiming liberty from someone else or from government; we are defending the freedom that was first given to us by God and at times lost by man. We do not have to learn how to be free, we have to learn how to keep freedom. We must learn how liberty has been lost throughout history, what methods and measures have been taken to defend it, and what threatens it today. Each of us are free until we decide for ourselves that we are not, until we make the decision to bow to tyranny rather than stand for the rights we were endowed with. We are all free, standing on our own two feet until we decide to live on our knees. And we have the freedom to make either choice.  -- Publius      2
-- martin geda, kisumu
Out of chaos comes order. Even Einstein knew this. Relativaty was easy, Now we need something more. The bow is drawn ready to cast us into the new mellenium. The old and sick are dying...Tragicly out-living the moores of the past. As you thrash and puke your sickening bile; for what? To preserve the last vestiages of your dying nation? Be gone you vile sick oafs. Stop protecting those you seek to defile. The world is about to explode and you think you have not contributed? Shame; shame; shame; on all of ye.  -- L. Hanson, Edmonton, CANADA      2
Life must always be questioned - even more so if you are comfortable. The force of propaganda rules most lives, it is therefore paramount to question what you are fed..... Fear, fear, consume, consume - Go back to sleep America all is well!  -- Robert, St. Emilion, France
Even though we live under inalienable rights given by God containing those rights and our liberty comes with duty and responsibility. I would say the first responsibility is to educate oneself concerning our founding principles and their origins and the duty is to see that those principles are maintained and passed down to the next generation and the importance of passing it down through their generations. Without the first responsibility to educate ourselves on these principles the crack of the foundation has already occurred in each successive generation adds to that crack until we end in despotism again.  -- Mike, Pleasant Hill
Well said Mike and Publius, also Mike, Pleasant Hill. The light that shines in darkness, liberty and freedom. As the world grows darker before the dawn, makes the light no less bright. I am at liberty, no doubt to make my own decisions. Natural free born sovereign.To first take the step up the ladder as an independent, it does help to have the leadership of an independent parent, instilling qualities suitable for a stance of liberty and freedom. Maintenance of one's own teaches care for others. Confidence. But this is done through faith in God, who is able by way of grace to support all who dare to take this, our stance of liberty. I do not strive but have ceased from strife with governing powers that wish to enslave me. This from the beginning, that one may know and trust our Creator. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.  -- Ron w13, Yachats Or
How free is a week old baby?  Is she not dependent upon her mother from minute one?  What choices does she have?  Can she exercise her will?  Will her cries be answered in the way she wants?  We are born with needs and desires — none of which can be fulfilled independently from those upon whom we are dependent.  With time and LEARNING, we 'realize' what is happening.  The baby has inherent 'rights' to life and liberty, but she is dependent.  Can you be free and be dependent upon another?  We have the right to be free, but the responsibility for independence is acquired — it's one of life's rites of passage, from childhood to adulthood.  Liberty and liberation are constant processes.  Look at all the folks in debt and disempowered due to their free choices.  Look at the unconscious dependents taxing the rest of us — are they free, are we?  They have the right to be free, but their choices have bound them.  When were the colonies 'free' from English rule? When they declared it.  Their assertion was that all people are born with the inherent rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not granted from the Crown.  Just because we are born with unalienable rights, doesn't mean that we are free — asks the slaves.  I cannot abide the definition of 'freedom' as one who is dependent.  Americans do indeed think they are free, but most are as dependent, indentured, and indebted as any serf.  We certainly are not free from that delusion.  If the truth sets us free, then when exactly did/does that happen?  Not at birth.  ;-)  -- E Archer, NYC
Group think helots, serfs and slaves have a mind set that they only exist at the whim of those around them. That is a very sad and demeaning existence. Unless one has experienced the phenominal enlightenment (spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, in the abstract — in all ways) of individual sovereignty (inherent with the absolute personal freedom there of) it simply is incomprehensible to all others what that "IS". When one realizes they are free (no matter the society around them) a whole new domain of existence opens up. No longer does April 15th or cops driving behind you for miles give cause for concern. There is always a giant learning curve as how to defend one's self and promote other's inalienable rights; WHILE ! ! ! the journey is very, VERY different as a freeman.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Waffler, you said: ""Soverign Citizens" … it seems many of them have been caught shooting and killing cops and have been killed in return”. I said: “Murder does not befit the crime of enforcing non-lethal tyranny. I am an advocate of law and justice with rules of criminal and civil procedure. Shooting and killing cops is, or should be, a capital offense.” How, by any stretch of truth or reason does that answer a question of mine or that the members of the so called "Soverign Citizens" sound a prosyeltize just like any of my above comments? As an IRS employee, you are at least consistent in proselytizing your statist theocracy’s dogma, deception and lies.  -- Mike, Norwalk

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