Recently by Jorge Gato: Police Stops in the First World vs. theThirdWorld
I jump across the border between Mexico and the US a few times a year to visit family and stock up on a consumer good or two. (I'm not kidding when I say that I used to get mail delivered faster to my yurt in the Central Asian desert than I do to Mexico.)
A question I frequently get asked by Mexicans is "Why did you come to Mexico?" To which I reply: "I'm still trying to find the answer to that question."
A question I frequently get asked by US subjects is "When are you coming back to the good ol’ USA?" To which I reply: "You mean Babylon? Never."
As a Permanent Tourist you ponder life abroad and reassess your situation from time to time, weighing your options. By now, I've grown accustomed to life outside of the good ol’ USA and am more comfortable living on the outskirts of the Empire than within its confines. I mean, it’s sunny and warm every day, the house that I rent is less than $300 a month, the beach is a hop and a skip away and my work week is only four days.
A number of factors run through the minds of US subjects who would like to see me return:
a) They envy the courage I had to break free of the status quo and strike out on my own. US subjects occasionally dream of what could have been, had they chosen their own path and not just done what they and everyone else had been told. My returning would make them feel better about their lack of imagination and bravery.
b) Their somewhat concern for my safety, painted by a frightening worldview they've established via tittle-tattle fed to them by the likes of former tabloid news editor and reality TV show host Piers Morgan and Company (a nickname for the CIA). I can’t tell you how many times people have gasped in horror, “You live in Mexico?!”
It's funny, the other day an amigo was pointing out that despite the CIA's "War on Civilization [Drugs]" and all of its casualties, no Mexican school needs armed guards, we're doing just fine. Contrast that to the now monthly school shootings in the good ol’ USA. (Yes, I know, in Mexico 50% of the population is not yet on suicidal prescription pharmaceuticals and the government here isn't known to regularly run false-flag operations, but still).
c) They would like to see me make more money. Ah, the typical American makes an embarrassment of himself when the first thing he asks a native in a foreign country is where they work and how much money they make. As someone once said, a man is not defined by his occupation; neither does he "live by bread alone."
It's comical; one US subject who asks me the question is himself an immigrant who will never return to his country of origin having been grafted into the "American Dream".
The Average Age of Empire
I recently viewed Kirk Cameron's documentary "Monumental" which is a decent attempt at assessing the Empire's decline and what made it great. Despite ignoring the occult beliefs of some of our “terrorist-extremist” patriarchs, Cameron does point out that a key to the nation was faith in God, as the first schools handed out Bibles printed by Congress. Ethics were based on God's immovable law and not on man's shifting morality. This led to individual responsibility, the free market, altruism and ultimately liberty.
Inevitably, man's nature catches up with him. When the average citizen gets too fat, dumb and dependent on the state, their priority shifts from seeking wisdom to running after pleasure and this becomes the turning point of a nation.
The average age of empire is some 200 years. Though free men must stand up to the forces of tyranny and the cowards behind despotism, it's interesting to think about that average age of empire. You're going up against the historical record when you surmise that an empire in decline can be resuscitated to its former glory. I'm talking about nations that have morphed into empires here, not exceptional tiny democratic strongholds like Switzerland. It's not impossible to revive liberty, but the odds just aren't with you my friend.
What happens instead? The oppressed hop the border. The ancient Israelites. Our “terrorist-extremist” forefathers. Soviet dissidents. North Korean escapees. Cuban refugees.
A family friend and Cuban exile once related to us his encounter with Fidel way back when. Apparently, in the early days of the dictatorship, our Cuban friend got into a bit of trouble with Fidel. The bearded leader actually held a gun to his head and was playing around with whether to pull the trigger or not. Suffice to say, our amigo has few polite words with which to describe his homeland, despite how beautiful Havana may be from the perspective of a foreigner.
Some US subjects regularly equate exile with cowardice. Let us apply the same standard of judgment. Most of those few have never had the courage to journey to the remote ends of the earth, drop themselves into a foreign land whose language they did not speak and surround themselves with hostilities of all sorts. And make it. Applying the same standard of judgment, a Permanent Tourist could call the man who never left the comfort of his village and his mom's cooking a coward.
There is more to life than patria. Freedom isn't resigned to a border. Freedom is for all men. It is something you carry with you. I mean, what kept Richard Wurmbrand content and cheerful for 14 years in communist Romanian hell? You can fight for it in your homeland or you can fight for it in the home you've adopted. In the age of information, you can fight for freedom globally. (And no, I don’t mean the Pentagon cyber false-flag operations of “Anonymous” and “Wikileaks”).
At last, you never know, perhaps some of us will pull a Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.
