The State Feasts on Holidays
Barbarous Relic 
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The State Feasts on Holidays
Barbarous Relic
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By George
Articles
Demagogue's Survival
Guide
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By George F. Smith Holidays serve the state well, but only if they're properly served up. Usually this comes at the price of truth. Let's see how this works. The state can't digest Thanksgiving straight out of history, so it sells us this version: the Pilgrims' first winter in 1620-21 was harsh, but when spring came, they learned new farming techniques from the natives and gave thanks for a bountiful harvest that fall. William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony, tells a different story. The harvest of 1621 was a disaster. So was the following year's harvest. During the two winters famine killed many of the colonists -- they had enough food for Thanksgiving but not enough to feed them for the months following. Then in 1623, they produced bountiful crops. Why the sudden good fortune? The Pilgrims changed their economic system. For the first two growing seasons they practiced community ownership -- everyone worked for the colony, no one worked for himself. The young and the strong did most of the work but received the same compensation as everyone else. They resented it and stopped working as hard. Consequently, crop yield plummeted and crop theft rose. In 1623, when Bradford gave each colonist a parcel of land and told him he could keep or trade what he grew, total production soared. The economics of private property fed the colonists. [1] The state, of course, can't digest the part about private property rights. So it stresses how tough and dedicated our forefathers were, and how bountiful America's land is. Next up are the Christian and Jewish holiday seasons. At first glance these might appear threatening, since they promote a rival to state authority. But a sufficiently powerful state such as the American federal government can feed off its rivals. Christmas, originally a pagan holiday, gets people into a submissive, giving, parting-with-one's-money frame of mind. The state likes that. Martin Luther King Day commemorates a martyr for equal rights, but the state found it more digestible to leave equality out of the recipe. Quotas and privileges buy more votes than equal rights. Valentine's Day is an unavoidable poison in the state's diet. Self-concern runs rampant on love day, with no thoughts to higher, more noble ideals such as farm subsidies or steel tariffs. The state attempts to control selfishness through its inoculation program of "valentines for everyone" in its youth indoctrination centers. Fortunately, Valentine's Day is too apolitical to pose a threat, although the state could always shut it down in the name of Zero Tolerance, since Cupid zaps people with arrows. Presidents' Day provides a remedial tonic for the orgy of love. Since Nixon's proclamation in 1971, it's been an all-inclusive affair, just like Valentine's Day. Singling out Lincoln and Washington, a faux pas from the past, not only affronts egalitarians but focuses discussion on these particular men. Did Washington really counsel a philosophy of no political intervention in foreign affairs? Why was Lincoln causing hundreds of thousands to die for a new United --at gunpoint-- States? Presidents' Day squelches such questions with its bland generality. Easter, including Lent, heightens the sense of guilt in the state's subjects, which always makes them more pliable. Unfortunately for the state, spring break shatters the mood. On Memorial Day the state calls on us to honor those Americans who died defending our freedom. We owe those people our highest honor. And the state owes their families an apology -- as scholars penetrate the secrecy surrounding our wars, it's becoming clear that most of our conflicts were political rather than defensive. Not surprisingly, Independence Day poses the biggest threat to state sovereignty. But with enough allies in the media, the state manages to pull through. Our independence in the 21st century requires ever-expanding government. How else can we slay social wrongs at home and monsters overseas? One of the proudest dates in American history is December 15, 1791. What would the country be without its Bill of Rights? Why do you suppose the state shows little enthusiasm for it? Colonists once celebrated August 14th, but that too passes unnoticed today. August 14, 1765 marked the day Bostonians rioted against Parliament's impending Stamp Act. Both dates signify victories for the people over oppressive state rule. No wonder the state chooses to ignore them. Reference 1. The Great Thanksgiving Hoax, Richard J. Maybury, http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=336
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Other Interesting Sites
Ron Paul's Classics of Libertarian Thought Greenspan's 1966 "Gold and Economic Freedom"
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