Humanity has come to a defining moment in its two hundred thousand year evolution: we are at a place where we either have to give up or we have to stand up.

Last night, amidst a backdrop of fear-creation by the security state, where you either shut up or face the consequences, my wife and I were talking about standing up to empire and what it might mean.

The slap-in-the-face awareness of the consequences-we-can-no-longer-ignore that people face for standing up to empire are finally and blatantly right in front of us. The evidence, which has been mounting since Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex in his farewell address in 1960, has been building, slowly, through the decades since.

Just consider: Vietnam, Nixon’s resignation, the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, the Reagan economic policies, Bush 1 & 2, the Clinton years of globalization that destroyed manufacturing in America, false flag wars, supporting dictators as long as they are our dictators, the hopium of a young Barack Obama and the incredible disappointment and betrayal as the security state moves into its fullness.

That awareness has been fully awakened by the recent charges filed against Edward Snowden.

Ike’s Nightmare

We are no longer a nation, in the farewell words of Eisenhower, whose basic purposes have been “to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations.” He went on to say, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

    “The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.” – James Madison

That disastrous potential has come to full fruition when our government wages wars for profit and pursues and punishes those who would expose illegal activities rather than those sociopaths who treasonously commit them against the founding principles of this nation. I can no longer keep silent against those who violate their oaths to defend the Constitution of the United States.

How Bad Is It?

According to Ron Tice, who worked as an offensive NSA agent from 2002 to 2005, before becoming a source for this Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times article exposing NSA domestic spying, in the summer of 2004 he saw orders to spy on Hillary Clinton, Senators John McCain and Diane Feinstein, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, Gen. David Petraeus, and a current Supreme Court Justice. In 2007, the NSA wiretapped a bunch of numbers associated with a forty-some-year-old senator from Illinois. You wouldn’t happen to know where that guy lives now would you? It’s a big White House in Washington D.C. That’s who the NSA went after. That’s the President of the United States now.” Tice went on to say:

“The abuse is rampant and everyone is pretending that it’s never happened, and it couldn’t happen. … I know [there was abuse] because I had my hands on the papers for these sorts of things : They went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of congress — Senate and the House — especially on the intelligence committees and the armed services committees, lawyers, law firms, judges, State Department officials, part of the White House, multinational companies, financial firms, NGOs, civil rights groups …”

According to Tice, “Outrageous abuses … have happened, and it’s all being kept hush hush,” according to Reuters.

    “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” — Abraham Lincoln

Self-censorship On The Rise

One of the fears that has been created, is that even journalists who report on what whistle blowers are doing can be prosecuted, has already had a chilling effect on those who would normally come forward. The results of this mean that free speech and a free press no longer exist in the U.S.

Add to that the recent unconstitutional surreptitious surveillances directed toward the Associated Press, PRISM, and American citizens, where non-violent protesters are now labeled “terrorists,” where congress upholds the Indefinite detention of Americans, and where Journalists who are investigating government secrets die suspiciously. The message? Keep your mouth shut, don’t get involved, and do as we say, and we’ll tell you what the news is. Intimidation means it won’t be long before nobody is talking to the media.

    “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” — Isaac Asimov

It is time to choose sides. As the Burning Platform blog states, “There is no middle ground in this debate. You are either on the side of freedom, liberty, truth, transparency and the U.S. Constitution or you are on the side of mindless obedience, oppression, deception, corruption and tyranny.”

So what does it mean in light of my conversation with my wife?

It means I know that I’m very much aware that I’m walking a fine line, one that could lead me to being considered an “enemy of the state.” I love my country, but what I’m not fond of is the imperialist bent of the present government. A DHS anonymous insider who is still talking – no source link provided – says that “so-called citizen journalists will be particularly vulnerable. Watch for a serious crackdown of bloggers, online news publications and websites.”

    “They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” –Benjamin Franklin

Worth The Fight

There’s an enormous amount of freedom in knowing that there are things more important than me. I’m in tune with my purpose and comfortable with my decision to resist tyranny regardless of what that might mean. Of course, that’s easy to say in the comfort of our mountain home, growing much of our own food, steeped in resilience and sustainability. Who knows where I might find the point where I can no longer make that claim?

I consider myself lucky because I’ve had a near death experience, so I don’t fear death. Dying is easy. Living your purpose is hard.

Although not her path in this lifetime, my wife supports my intentions, mostly because she knows that I wouldn’t be the authentic man she loves if I weren’t paying attention to what I have to do. At 68-years old, my voice is my sword, and my mind is my armor. My path will be non-violent unless violence is hoisted upon me or my loved ones. You and I will enjoin this battle because we have no choice and we will stand side by side until we win or lose…and I have every intention of winning and living until I die. Everything is already changing, and while we can see where it’s headed, I have to believe we can still triumph.

Last, as pointed out in one of my previous writings, it is exactly these kinds of disruptions and cognitive dissonance that spur new ways of thinking. The fascist oligarchy created by the merging of government and corporations is one of many inter-connected problems that are serving to awaken more and more people, and will hopefully serve as a catalyst for increased awareness. We are beginning to realize that we have much more in common than not, that we are connected as one, and what one loses, all lose. What one wins, all win. Life conditions determine how people respond and adapt and life for Americans, by all accounts, is changing rapidly.

This article originally appeared on Transition Voice

About The Author

Gary Stamper, Ph.D., is the founder of CollapsingintoConsciousness.com, and the author of Awakening the New Masculine: The Path of the Integral Warrior.