“…land of the free, and the home of the brave.”  I have come across many people who believe this line from our national anthem to be true. To them, it is true simply because this is the United States of America. It takes no effort on the part of any individual. If you were born here, you are free and you are brave. It is your birthright.

But it is not. The idea that the United States of America is the “land of the free and the home of the brave” is a myth. Undoubtedly, there are individuals in this country who could be said to be free as well as individuals who could be said to be brave. But overall, I think the majority of us are wage slaves who are deliberately kept in a state of fear so we are more easily controlled.

Free: not held as a slave; not physically held by something (Merriam-Webster)

Wage Slave: a person dependent on wages or a salary for a livelihood (Merriam-Webster)

Many of us, I would even say most of us, in this country live pay check to pay check, imprisoned by debt. We cannot truly claim we are free. We are told we are free, but what is the reality? I am not free to take off and go live in another part of the country just because I feel I want a change of scenery. Yes, in theory, I am free to do so. But the reality is I have to be sure that in a new location I will be able to find employment that will allow me to pay my current debts as well as the new debts incurred by such a move. I, and most people, don’t make enough money to be debt free or make such a move without going into debt.  I am not truly free.

The days of being able to save enough to make a purchase, a new car for example, and pay cash are long gone. People today do not earn enough, in relation to the cost of living, to be able to save that kind of money. A frightening number of people don’t earn enough to save for retirement, let alone to purchase things like cars without going into debt.

During the rise of the middle class, when the labor movement was strong and wages were keeping better pace with inflation, people could save money. They could save for that car, or to buy a home. They could save to send their children to college. They could save for retirement.

But that all ended. It is my belief that a strategy used in the fight against organized labor was to give the middle class the illusion of attaining the American dream, the illusion that people were doing at least as well as their parents, if not better. My parents were able to afford a higher standard of living than their parents because of increased wages. As wage growth stagnated, the “powers that be” were aware that the labor movement would rise again if workers felt they were not doing as well as their parents. Enter the age of easy credit.

Rather than rewarding hard work and increased productivity with an increase in wages, we, the working class, were loaned that money. It was loaned to us in the form of easy credit. I remember a time when credit was much more difficult to get than it is today.

With easy credit, workers can purchase enough “stuff” to feel like they are living the American dream. Basically, I feel they convinced us to let them keep our raises so we could borrow that money and pay it back to them with interest. They convinced us to concede the power that came with financial independence.

The combination of easy credit and the demand for instant gratification in our society ensures that the majority of us will be kept in debt. “He who controls the debt has the power” I think I heard that in a movie once. I would have to say I believe it to be true. When we are in debt, we do not have the freedom to leave a job that doesn’t suit us. We do not have the freedom to demand better treatment in the workplace. We are certainly NOT in a position of power. We know that what we have can be taken from us because we don’t own … we owe. Because so much of what we have could be taken from us, we live in fear.

Fear: to expect or worry about (something bad or unpleasant): to be afraid and worried (Merriam-Webster)

Brave: feeling or showing no fear: not afraid: having or showing courage (Merriam-Webster)

Fear of losing what we have keeps many of us in line. The sacrifice to speak out is too great. We have too much to lose. Have you ever wondered why so many activists belong to the younger generation? Or maybe why so many activists come from minority groups? Are they trouble makers? Are they too young and inexperienced to know what they are talking about? Or could it be they have nothing to lose?

I would say they have nothing to lose. Either they have not acquired as much debt or they have so much debt in relation to their income that they can’t possibly pay it off and feel they are destined to lose all they have anyway. They feel helpless in our economic system.

Fear is used constantly. I would be willing to bet the weather app on your smart phone sends you a storm warning every time a cloud appears on the horizon. Cable news channels barrage you with the threats to our democracy, and our security, and our economy, and … you get the picture. They don’t do this to keep you informed.  It keeps you checking the weather on a regular basis. It keeps you tuned so you can monitor the danger posed by Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers On Drugs (song by Dave Lippman ). It keeps you watching so that they can sell more advertising. The more viewers/ listeners etc., the more advertising they can sell and the more they can charge for it.

I think it is important to keep in mind that capitalism demands everything have a profit motive. Someone is profiting from nearly everything you are exposed to every day. Unless you are getting your news from a viewer/ listener supported source such as public television or radio, the news you are getting is designed generate a profit by the ability to attract advertisers. The number of viewers a particular news channel has is more important than the accuracy or truth of the content. A news show that can stir up emotions and entice more people to watch/ listen for a longer time is more profitable than a news program that investigates and reports factual information.

Citizens of this country would rather be entertained than informed. A look at the popularity of movies containing graphic violence in this country would suggest “entertainment” does not necessarily mean something which makes us laugh, we like to be scared. News programs that stir up our emotions satisfy our desire to be entertained more than programs which simply present us with information.

To stir up emotion, one doesn’t need to send a reporter to investigate and research and then report, all of which cost money, which cuts into profits. One simply needs to find a story, and then present the opinions of the various pundits.  This is also what I feel is one of the major reasons to disregard, or at least be skeptical of information presented as news if it consists of a headline, or story, which is not accompanied by a report of the facts surrounding the event, but by the opinions of the pundits instead.

By being entertained or kept in a state of fear, we are distracted. We don’t come together to find solutions to the problems faced by our society, solutions which would upset the status quo. In fact, we rarely come together enough to identify the problems. When we are fearful, we willingly allow our freedoms to be stripped away by those who claim to be protecting us.

When I was in the army, my fellow service members and I believed that “Freedom isn’t Free”. Back then that meant that a worst case scenario would involve paying for the freedoms enjoyed by the citizens of the United States of America with our lives. Best case scenario was we were paying for those freedoms by giving up the personal freedoms one gives up when serving in the military.

I have since come to realize that the true price of freedom is risk. You can’t have freedom without it. The Greek historian and general Thucydides said, “The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage.” If we truly wish to be the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”, we must have courage. We must have the courage to acknowledge certain facts, such as democracy, whether representative democracy or direct democracy, requires each and every one of us to participate. We must put forth the effort to educate ourselves. We must make the effort to research the facts and not be seduced by the emotionally charged propaganda that makes up today’s political campaigns and for many, passes as “reliable information”.

I have heard many, myself included, say, “I don’t have the time to look up the information I need to make an informed decision.” We need to be brave enough to acknowledge the fact that when so many are facing the same problem, something is wrong with our system. We need to be brave enough to take the steps necessary to correct the problem and fix the system.  We must be brave enough to admit that one of those steps may be to compromise. We must be courageous enough to admit that compromise means our side must give up something. We must be brave enough to have uncomfortable conversations with those who don’t think as we do. We must be brave enough to listen to the other side and look at the issues from their point of view.

“The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.” – Jim Hightower

In order to be free, we have to be brave. We have to be brave enough to accept the risks that come with freedom.  We have to be brave enough to grow and change when required to do so.  When we get to that point, then we may rightfully claim the title “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”.