No matter where you look, it's liberty this, freedom that. Flip TV channels and flow of liberty and freedom (especially in conjunction with the military, flag, wars, veterans and buying junk) may just make your head dizzy, same with radio, newspapers, etc. It appears as some serious mental conditioning that is patching up a huge rift between reality and its perception.
It's really ironic, if you think about it, marketeers are always trying to link consumption of a product X with tangibles&intangibles that are lacking in an average consumer's life. Therefore, overuse of imagery of "freedom" & "liberty" to peddle stuff automatically implies that those two things are lacking big time in the life of an average wage unit. Just try to lose your wallet/job to see how free you are. Of course if you have a job & full wallet you may think you've got "freedom" but is it your freedom or freedom of your wallet'? Think about all the "adjustments" and "self-improvements" you've done to get and keep a job, especially in the current corporate environment demanding conformity and compliance on multiple levels (having NOTHING to do with a job you do). Your everyday existence is legislated to a letter, you must comply with thousands of laws and regulations to live a day, if you have kids, the amount of BS and self-censorship doubles. Of course there are guns for you to cling to whenever allowed. And that's I think reason #2 people cling to their guns, it's one of the last illusions they have left.
Sure, I don't want to underplay the freedom of consumption (if you have money) and freedom of selection realistic strategies to make a buck. We live in the material world. But freedom of consumption (if you have money) & freedom of selling your arse (if there are takers), freedom to attempt to run a business exists in 99% of the countries out there. Of course when fresh off the boat immigrants are asked "Why did you come here?", freedom and opportunities naturally come to their mouths. But they are LYING, they had freedom & opportunity to sell their arses in their home countries, most of them had freedom to run their mouths (they will voluntarily give it up here, just in case). What they didn't have in their home countries - a reasonable probability to make let's say $10/hr. That's what they are after. Immigrants failing to secure $10/hr suddenly realize that they've got nothing, no freedoms, no friends, no illusions, nothing.
And another thing. I'm not a military hater, regrettably, it's an important institution and people making it a real fighting force (unlike 80% of the Armies of the world) deserve respect. Yet, if somebody bring up the line "Thank you Veterans for defending our freedom". It's just too much of ignorance and brain conditioning to swallow. Personally, I cannot accept travesty of the notion of waging (neo) colonial wars to defend ephemeral freedoms. If for anything, all those wars to make the world a better place for the transnational corporations made a life of an average American less free (that includes "opportunities" to sell your arse for reasonable wages and to run your own business). Every time US population is whipped into jingoistic hysteria, freedom shrinks, there were no exceptions. Think about it, except 2 or 3 wars, all the wars US army waged were the wars of aggression to take somebody's else freedom (and resources) away. Founding father's warning about the dangers that "standing armies" pose to freedom is perceived as an antiquated joke these day. It cannot be, "standing army" is something to worship, it's not something to be afraid and to be critical about.
One of the surest ways to get your posts deleted is to question link between military, veterans and defense of "freedom". There is strong conditioned reflex (you didn't pick with your momma milk, btw) to associate military and wars (no matter how criminal and useless) with freedom. Who paid for that nationwide conditioned reflex 180 degrees opposite to founding ideas? Can you imagine "real world" consequences of me questioning the sanctity of the link between military & freedom? Yup, you guessed it right the wage of questioning & nonconformity is unemployment (sooner, rather than later). In my experience outspoken nonconformity of any kind is a surest way to get canned (nope, I conform
), no exceptions. Of course, you may say that private repression is so much better than state repression, but that's questionable at best. Since, private entities hold meal tickets of 90% of American in their hands, US government may just "outsource" conformity enforcement the way it outsourced Army laundry services etc. Considering the revolving door between US governmental agencies etc. and corporations, for all practical purposes it doesn't matter who does it. The important thing - American conditioned reflexes and self-censorship beats anything that more primitive totalitarian regimes could achieve.
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