The Church of The Secular Tyrant

I had found myself stewing over the lack of notable commercial airline crashes that happened in the month of November and the sadness in that I found myself lacking in busy work this week. I didn’t see that many lesson worthy historical events to type about. But for once, I was impacted by a program that I had stopped listening to but picked up again after a few months.

Free Talk Live is a strange program. It is “home” to a mish mash of “libertarianesque” people that many libertarians wouldn’t claim. This could be an insult or a compliment. Often I hear things that don’t ring home to me. Sometimes I hear something “juicy” or newsworthy. It might have been a caller that inspired me this time.

I personally know of a few people that hold elected and non elected governmental officials in high esteem. They often use these people’s names as if they were an immoveable body (or even an infallible religious figure). I know of people that think that the governor of our state is the be all and end all. This mentality is to their detriment, among ours.

We are guilty of letting this happen. We put up miniature shrines to these leaders. Some of us have bumper stickers, chotchkes, and those stupid collectibles that supposedly make us feel whole. (The truth is that we are left just as empty as we started).

These people can’t make us healthy, wealthy, or wise. At best, they have to change their pitch and focus our short attention spans to something else.

In the mean time, we choose to cede parts of our lives over to them. Some of us don’t feed ourselves, shelter ourselves, or make any decisions.

In the Shrine of Learned Helplessness, lies The Church of The Secular Tyrant. Instead of values to push us to live responsible lives and have some basis for structure, we are sheep at best. We pray to the false gods of “someone has to do something” and “isn’t that what tax money is for”. The saints never set good examples of the statist religion. They often are never remembered for going against their own religion. The “bringers of light” are never remembered for their steering away from the face of the creators. We are left feeling damned every few years, but we never meet the savior.

Don’t worry, I am not that Savior. Politically speaking, we will never find them. You will continue to put your faith in tyrant and tyrant lite alike. But when you feel like changing churches…