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Government Oppression: An Abusive Relationship
Living under the heavy hand of government is like being in an abusive relationship.
I’ve never been in an abusive relationship but rely on others expertise to help me sort this out.
When someone is being physically or mentally abused by a partner, at first the victim puts up with it, thinking this is normal or that they are doing the right thing by staying in the relationship.
People try to tell them to get out and get away but the hold is sometimes too great and the perpetrator is good at manipulating information to make the victim feel like the guilty party.
At some point, we hope the victim gets to a point where they see they don’t have to put up with the oppression or the depression.
They say they want to leave and the oppressor pours on the guilt, twisting words and actions again, clouding the conversation in an attempt to hold control.
When the victim finally gets out of the relationship there is a clarity that follows.
Things that didn’t seem normal but they were used to living that way, all of the sudden are understood to be a lie.
I was talking a friend who survived a horrible school shooting in Oregon.
She totally understood my analogy.
She too has moved to Montana and see’s how much she couldn’t say while living back in Oregon.
She recently visited her home state and saw clearly the freedoms she had traded for getting along.
I think a lot folks who disagree with me and wonder what changed about me, do not understand how much you can’t say when you live in a place where your values and principles are not honored or even allowed. We understand the tolerance level of the culture and stop short of pissing people off to live in a false sense of peace.
When you get away from that oppression you can’t believe how much you put up with.
Oregon is a wonderful place and many of the people are just amazing.
But the state has sunk into a one ideology monster that eats those who see things in a different light.
It didn’t used to be like that.
Oregon was this rugged, individualist kind of place where you live your life and I’ll live mine.
But outsiders moved in and arrogance swept over the land and for those who see things differently, the silence started.
As we move to other places to find our freedom we must remember not to go to a new place and do the same thing.
Assimilate and ask lots of questions.
And if you start to think you know what’s best, take a time out, back off and remember what you came from and why you left.
I will always love Oregon.
But when the fire dies in one relationship isn’t it nice to know you can find a new love in a place called (for us) Montana.
