Freedom Doctrine: The Empire of Oppression
In the name of freedom and the “civilized world," we have conquered the globe through war. Every era has its own rhetoric regarding the “barbarians" who think, speak, or believe differently than the Empire. This same perception extends to any land ripe for colonization; it is simply good business to control the space so the rest of the world might bow to the Empire’s will.
Are these deeds of colonization part of human nature? One could imagine hunter-gatherers charging into every new grassland yelling, “Freedom! This land is mine, not yours!” while pushing other tribes away and committing the kind of blooming atrocities that we, modern Sapiens, have inherited. But back then, they had the excuse of complete ignorance: no internet, no Signal groups to orchestrate military operations.
Our contemporary era now wears the shadows of the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, the 1884 Berlin Conference, and even the Soviet Union. We are even embracing a greed that feels distinctly mid-century German. Donald “Napping-Toddler” Trump is eager to embody these eras in his own persona (he actually said it!), reaching that level with impoverished language and a fractured intellect, yet driven by the same pursuit of evil. He claims, again, that Greenland needs to be part of the US; he’s now running Venezuela, and perhaps Cuba and Colombia could be next on the invasion’s list. They have so much oil, so many resources, and managed by the wrong people.
It’s like listening to an orange trumpet playing an awful song; no one can shut it down, and it’s leading the whole band. The War Department and State Department simply follow the horrific notes, lacking both cadence and rhythm. It is a nightmare to our eyes and ears.
But it’s not only Trump; his entire gang delivers the same script. “This Is Our Hemisphere — and President Trump Will Not Allow Our Security to be Threatened,” says Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. “We are in charge because we have the United States military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and conditions [regarding Venezuela],” continues Stephen Miller, the speech-yelling writer and Chief Deputy of Nonsense Rhetoric and Homeland Insecurity.
This isn’t the only time we’ve witnessed the "liberating" behavior of the world’s police. If we go back in time, the United States has channeled its true essence since the 19th century, starting with its “colonization" (sorry, expansion) to the West, which forced Mexico to lose more than 50% of its land.
Then came Cuba against the Spanish Empire; then the First and Second World Wars (though they waited for Pearl Harbor before dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki); then the Cold War and the regime changes where Communism or dictatorships “threatened" Capitalism (Panama, Chile, Brazil, Vietnam, South Korea, Congo, etc.); then the concern for oil, leading to the Gulf War in 1991, Afghanistan, Iraq in the 2000s, and now, Venezuela. All these interventions and invasions were carried out on behalf of that one word: freedom.
Freedom is a dichotomous word. Physically, it has no value at all; we are slaves to the planet, to physical laws, to our own biology, and to the societal system. On the other hand, psychologically, the word carries a subtle, powerful weight. To be free from the conditioning imposed by society, therein the paradox.
So, when we hear people chattering over the sound of guns and bombs about how they want to “free" us, are they? Or is “freedom" just a euphemism, a fashionable word used to hunt and kill us so we can yell, “Thank you for saving us from the previous oppression! We welcome the new one!”
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