The Rifleman  

Remember building the pyramids?

Either 20,000 or 100,000 - depending on which historian/archeologist you believe - sweating Egyptians, each hooked to a long rope, the other end of the rope attached to a giant, multi-ton block of stone, pulling with all their might, under a hot sun?

Sounds like fun, huh?

And only 2.5 million more multi-ton blocks to go! (That’s just for the largest of the three pyramids - the others are there, waiting, too!)

People laboring for the state. Without pay. However willingly or unwillingly (we don’t know the answer to that question).

500 feet high, covering 13 acres - that’s one big mama!

It’s possible dragging the stones there was the easy part. Lifting them in place, and ‘dressing’ them to fit so smoothly a knife blade won’t fit in the joint - that prob was the real work.

Here’s a take on how it was done:

“”[It's]…now believed that the labor force reached 100,000…when farm work was impossible due to the annual Nile floods [July to late October]. During the rest of the year these human beasts of burden would return to their tasks as serfs on the rest of the land.”

Right there you have it. At least one theoretical construct of it.

Yet, reading it, can you maybe relate it to something more modern? Something closer to home?

Anyone ever heard of something called “Tax Freedom Day”??

It’s the day of the year when you’ve worked and earned enough to pay all your taxes for the year - state, federal, local - and you are free to begin working for yourself, and keeping what you make.

This year the Tax Foundation says, after taking into account the 1.5 trillion federal budget deficit, you’ll have to work from Jan 1 to May 29 to pay your annual taxes.

Only after that do you begin keeping for yourself what money you’ve earned.

Let’s look at the box score:

Ancient Egyptians: 3+ months working for the state (but during a time when they could not work for themselves - I guess - because the fields are flooded), over ten or twenty years.

The strong, free, modern 21st-century American: five solid months working for the collective state - national, regional, and local - with every year generally seeing “Tax Freedom Day” delayed a day or two longer - for a lifetime.

Say, who had it better?

Or more properly, who had it worse?

Or in yet another way, you can ask “what’s the difference?” What’s the difference between involuntary labor 4500 years ago and even more [semi-]involuntary labor, today?

(I asked this question at an Appleseed, and a lady blurted out “Air conditioning!” Actually, I was thinking the answer would be “the Egyptians had it better, because they only labored three-plus months every year, whereas we have to labor five” - or maybe “the moral here is, don’t waste your time pitying the poor Egyptians - there’s plenty to pity us poor hard-working Americans about” - but she had a point. Maybe it explains why Americans are not rushing to build time machines to go back to “the Land of Vacation” so many centuries ago. )

Let’s add one more historical fact to the mix: 200+ years ago, 13 colonies revolted over a penny stamp tax. (OK, a slight exaggeration - it was the attempt to seize arms at Concord that really set things off.)

The Stamp Tax, like many of the acts of Parliament at the time, led to riots, tar-and-featherings, and a massive boycott of imported English goods. So massive, the Stamp Tax was quickly repealed.

All that, over a penny.

Actually, over the issue of “taxation without representation”.

However, recent experience suggest it looks like taxation WITH representation has been a little oversold, right?

We get to this point when we let our standards slip - the standards set by the Founders. And we slip into an “unholy trinity”.

1. Politicians become adept at one thing: saying anything to get re-elected.

2. The vote-counting procedure in modern American can’t seem to be made idiot-proof - or tamper-proof.

3. The voters are largely lazy, ignorant, and self-centered in their self-interest.

It’s a “deadly trinity” which has the power to easily sink this ship.

And, is sinking it.

The past has many uses. Inspiration, motivation, education, and, not least, as a standard by which to measure the present.

By that standard, I’m not sure how well we measure up - either to 2500 BC, or to the late 1700s…

Guess you’ll have to decide.

In the meantime, resolve to come to an Appleseed, learn your heritage, then join us to make America once again conscious of and respectful of those liberty-loving and -winning people who went before us so long ago.

PS: By a curious twist of history, back in Egypt, it was the poorer level of society that carried the burden; today, the poorer level can take a vacation, and watch and enjoy “their betters” as they bear all the burden…