Power is like a gravity well in space. It draws everything towards it, big and small, and everything it captures makes the force stronger. It reaches further and pulls harder; escaping it requires more and more energy. Eventually it becomes so massive that nothing can be free of its grasp.

Remember: everything you give up to those in power only helps to strengthen them and weaken yourself.

You are the only one who is guaranteed to be watching out for your interests. No matter what they say, those over you are interested in preserving and increasing themselves. It’s human nature, and overlooking it out of faith or ignorance is a guaranteed loosing bet. Trusting them will always turn out a disappointment; at best, your interests will align for a time, only for you to be let down later. At worst, they’re flat out lying to your face and you will have paid your half of the bargain and gotten nothing in return.

Take a step back and look at what you’re giving up in the hope of getting something in back. Take gay marriage for instance. We fight with each other over preserving tradition or expanding civil rights. This is just as the powerful would like it, as the lines have been drawn and no one chooses to look up and say, “Why should my choice of who to love and unite with be the government’s business at all?” We are individuals and citizens; that should be enough in the government’s eye. In our drive to force everyone else to do the “right” thing, we’ve instead handed over the very right to determine one of the most personal decisions in our life! The same can be said of any number of things. We debate taxes, healthcare reform, and legalizing drugs, but nobody realizes that by giving the power for these decisions to the government in the first place, they’ve already lost far more than they hope to gain.

There is only one unbounded power in America: the government. If a corporation gets out of hand, the government can reign them in. If a foreign power becomes aggressive, the government is there to intervene. But who’s there to keep the government in bounds? The three branches? They’ve each shown that they’re more interested in increasing their own power rather than limiting the others. The voting public? They’re the ones who enthusiastically trade freedom for ease at every opportunity. They’re not about to turn their backs on their “benefactors”. Like a black hole, the government’s power will grow inexorably, building on itself, crushing everything around it in a mindless drive to consume. So will you continue fighting those next to you over whether to go left or right, or will try to convince them that the best direction is away?