Humans become smarter with time and technology, but animalistic instincts never change. Power draws people who seek to capitalize and abuse it.
The Declaration of Independence gives us an insight into what past, present, and future tyranny might look like.
1. Must submit your local laws to a foreign power for approval without your consent
”He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
A modern example would be having the European Union (EU) approve every piece of legislation that Congress wanted to pass.
Americans don’t like as much government bureaucracy and freedom embodies the American culture.
No one would like to have to wait for the “master” to approve every new budget proposal or law.
2. Restricting movement out of your home country
“…endeavoured to prevent the population…obstructing the laws of Naturalization of Foreigners…to encourage their migrations…”
Fences can keep people in or out. If the barbed wire is on the inside of the fence to keep people locked in a border, there is a reason the “master” doesn’t want you to leave.
People should be free to move within a country’s border (Article 13: UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights) but if road blocks start popping up to keep you within a state or territory, you are looking down the barrel of tyranny.
Don’t get this confused with a country having control of its borders from an external source.
3. All power for judiciary punishment belongs to 1 person
“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing to his assent to laws…”
How can a king be the juror, judge, and executioner all in one?
In the American colonies, good ole King George III refused to let local courts try criminals. King George III was the boss and had the sole power of force. He decided what was best for the criminal either through his courts or himself.
This way of governing goes against the individual, and you might end up “guilty until proven innocent” instead of “innocent until proven guilty”.
Outside of a monarchy, leaders derive their power from the people and need their consent to govern -like Thomas Jefferson states in the Declaration.
If people lose faith in their judicial system, a state of nature will exist, and rebellion is not far off.
4. Judges become pawns of the state
“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone…payment of salaries.
No judge should be threatened with their livelihood based on a potential ruling that they could make.
Public servants are supposed to be the best-of-the-best of society and the most virtuous. Financially desperate people do not rule in the best interests of the accused. Thus, this causes a corrupt court system.
You might as well call-in special favors to judges to have your enemies persecuted at that point. You can always bribe your local judge.
Thankfully, the Constitution protects judge’s compensation: “ …receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.”
5. The government starts erecting new government branches “out of necessity”
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices…sent swarms of Officers to harrass our people…”
Is it a pleasurable experience when a government official comes to your house?
As the 40th President of the USA- Ronald Reagan- said:
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
President Ronald Reagan
When a government becomes too big, it is like gaining weight without being able to loosen your belt after a Thanksgiving Day meal. All that turkey is good at the moment but not when you can’t loosen your belt to relieve the bloated feeling.
Bloated governments are scary. They become bold in their actions against the populous of a country. Their police powers increase to limits beyond the scope of what any generation had seen prior.
6. Your local street corner looks like a military base
“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies…”
One day you decide to sleep in, but you can’t sleep with all the noise of large trucks outside your window. You go to look outside to find the following: large military trucks, troops with machine guns, and too much commotion.
The following questions start to go through your mind:
What is going on?
Should I be scared?
Are we at war?
Your home and local life look what you find in a dystopian novel.
But the novel is at your front door. The tv news scenes are before your eyes, and now you are the news that other people are watching about in a faraway land.
These military personnel are hostile to you. You know something is not right, but all forms of communication are cut off and you’re trapped. That sounds like tyranny to me.
LEARN MORE about the history of the Declaration of Independence
7. Military personnel are not subject to the local authority for laws they break
“…military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”
Troops have carte blanche to do as they please. They have no moral authority to the local laws of the country they are in.
This is a “soft invasion” meaning foreign inference without an official war starting at that point.
8. Foreign laws take prominence over local laws
“…subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution…”
If you are a sovereign country, shouldn’t you not have control over your own laws?
Yes, you should.
The foundation of a country is sovereignty. Without sovereignty, you cannot build a cohesive culture.
Every country has unique needs and wants. Native governments need the freedom to do what is in the best interest of their populous.
For example, would you want lawmakers from Europe passing laws saying that you can’t drink a coke because they think Americans are too fat?
New York City tried that many years ago. It didn’t work.
9.Troops start sleeping in your bed
“For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.”
Good ole King George III mandated that the “USA subjects” open their homes to British troops.
Troops come inside your house drink your coffee and have sex on your sheets. Those are dirty sheets that you are going to have to change yourself.
You can’t tell the troops “No kind sir, you may not enter my property.” because you had to submit to British power.
This act was so irreprehensible during the Revolutionary War that we have the 3rd Amendment to protect American citizens from quartering troops without legislation in times of war.
10. Foreign puppet courts protect their own troops from local punishment
“…protected them by a mock Trial, from punishment for any murders…Inhabitants of these States.”
Foreign troops could not be court-martialed under colonial laws.
Would you want troops to be able to have an unchecked force to openly commit mafia-style murder and not be under the scrutiny of law?
11. You can no longer trade in free commerce with other countries
“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”
Imagine going into your grocery store not being able to find your favorite foreign beer or cigars. That’s all thanks to a foreign power not allowing you to trade with other nations because they control the goods that go in and out of the country.
You will become dependent on that country for every basic need that you are not able to produce. Who wants to be dependent on a foreign government? That goes against the rugged spirit of American Individualism.
In modern times, energy independence is our equivalent to an 18th-century port blockade. As much as we need alternate sources of energy, being reliant on OPEC for oil makes a multitude of basic economic costs rise when oil is scarce.
12.An arbitrary foreign power taxes you
“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.”
Your daily living expenses would become more expensive- not from inflation- but from a tax that goes to the deep pockets of foreign corrupt autocrats.
The modern equivalent would be the European Union (EU) adding a valued added tax (VAT) to goods in the USA that you pay directly to them. You receive no government service from that tax.
This hypothetical situation could happen if the EU conquered the USA to have influence and authority over USA citizens.
The British had no claim to the USA when people left Great Britain for liberty and freedom many generations before 1776. The Boston Tea Party became the rallying cry for the future American Revolution due to “taxation without representation”.
13.Dictators send you to a cold, dark prison without a fair trial
“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”
You are shivering, alone, and depressed in a dark prison cell without loved ones near you for a crime that you did not commit.
That’s the reality of a situation when you are guilty until proven innocent. Without a fair, speedy trial, you’re a just number in a prison cell with awful food.
Fortunately, the USA has the 6th amendment making a trial by jury a human right.
14.Foreign powers transport you to a different country to try you in foreign courts for potential offenses committed in your home country.
“For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.”
Now, instead of being in a local prison for a potential crime, you’re on a ship going across the ocean to be locked up in “Your Majesty’s gold-plated prison of punishment”.
This was a perfect scheme for Britain to rid of Revolutionary sentiment or- political dissents. No one in your circle of trust knew where you went.
Foreign courts have different laws than what you are used to. Punishments and sentencing could be harsher.
15. Claims on land and borders change to fit whatever narrative the controlling power wants.
“…abolishing the free system of English Laws…enlarging its Boundaries… same absolute rule…”
The Quebec Act of 1774 granted lands to French Canadians-not Americans. These were disputed lands that were allotted for expansion by the colonists. The lands disputed are the current day Midwest.
Land is a finite commodity. When a foreign power decides to change your current or future land borders, your entire economic and political situations change.
16. A federal authority absolves all locally connected governments.
“For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws…”
The Sequence of Events:
- Your state government absolves local city/county governments.
- The federal government dissolves the state governments.
- A self-proclaimed dictator absolves the federal government
For colonial governments to have power, many state governments had to have royal charters to function. This recognized them to the British as legitimate and granting them the power to make local laws.
17.Local state legislatures are disbanded.
“For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves…power to legislate…”
If the local government had been absolved but somehow you still had a legislature to meet in secret, there might have been a chance for some local representation.
However, not after an official decree said no, the hounds of King George III would be after the representatives.
18.The protective government publicly disowns you and starts firing on you
“…declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.”
If your government starts using the military against its citizens, that is the classic definition of tyranny. Up until that time, Great Britain was the established government for the American citizens until British troopers fired on Americans.
Tanks rolling down your street is tyranny in the present. In 1776, British wagons with cannons became the tyranny.
19. The government tells you that your neighbor is an enemy or a spy.
“…excited domestic insurrections amongst us…”
Putting family against family- or co-worker against co-worker- is a way of making people weaker. If you’re divided against a common enemy, that works out better for your opponent because you fail to organize and see the enemy troops approaching at the outpost.
