“As Americans we are not collective groups of middle, lower or upper class people, but rather individuals freely climbing a ladder of economic opportunity. We must empower ourselves and our children to rise above the envious who would have you unnaturally contort yourself to fit their fictitious class structure and crush your dreams of a better life..” ~ Lawrence Stone

If we are ever to fight off the engulfing tyranny being slowly imposed on us by the politicians of this last century, we need to stop using these would-be tyrants propaganda to refer to ourselves and our fellow citizens. The words we use have meaning and they matter as my father often reminds me.

I refuse to accept the popular reference to American citizens as members of set classes. My economic status is not middle, average or permanent. Nothing in the real world is truly permanent nor are we part of the same” team” to be grouped together by our “current” economic status. So why let ourselves be trapped by this collectivist negative language?

If the word “middle” and “class” doesn’t really bother you, I suggest that it should. In contrast, the notion of an Upper Class brings to mind the perception of a permanent aristocracy. The reality is Americans fortunes are lost just as fast as they are made every day and mobility between these so called classes fluctuates quite a bit. Subscribing to this collectivist class structure, perpetuates the apathetic pessimism and outright lies smothering the American dream.

After all it was here in America where we proved that humanity can flourish and produce unimaginable economic growth if we have the chains of the cast/class structure removed. While not perfect, our society has been a stark contrast to those of the past. We were no longer a permanent class of peasants or subjects of a king, but instead free men and women who could achieve great success even in the face of great adversity. We have seen countless generations from every faith and culture fail and succeed in our relatively free market society. Especially today after the institutional and immoral racial class system has been legally dissolved we should have more opportunity as a society then ever before. So why now are we settling to be defined as “middle” and average when we could be great!?

I often tell my kids if you don’t decide then someone will decide for you. If you choose to be a slave to your own doubt, fears and laziness and remain fixed where you are in life, then it is a choice you have made, not one imposed on you by your neighbors. Able Americans are not stuck on the same step of the economic ladder unless they have chosen to do so. We should be the individuals who are the exception to the collective rule, the ones that break through the mold and stereotypes given to us by others. As Americans we are not collective groups of middle, lower or upper class people, but rather individuals freely climbing a ladder of economic opportunity. We must empower ourselves and our children to rise above the envious who would have you unnaturally contort yourself to fit their fictitious class structure and crush your dreams of a better life.

Buying in to this manufactured class system allows for those who are fictitiously victimized by it to fall prey to it themselves. It gives those that self define themselves as “lower class” no hope for upward mobility. When you are told you have nothing and will never have anything better, it breads one of the worst emotions in a human being; Envy. This envy gives some the unimaginable confidence that they have the moral authority to steal from their neighbors (with the governments hand) and are entitled to their “fair share”of the fruits of another’s labor to sustain their chosen lazy lifestyle. Someone has to be to blame for their oppression if it isn’t themselves, why not the rich! You can only be a victim of class warfare if you subscribe to this false paradigm in the first place. I am not a stationary unit on the “middle” shelf, in the back room of an abandoned warehouse who’s fate will be decided by bureaucrats and the will of a majority mob! We are ALL living breathing individual organisms not masses of people and statistics.

Life is full of choices and I choose to use the words that define me. I will not accept the economic and mental prison of this mythological class you would have me enslave myself with. Here today I affirm that I am a free man who is in control of my own destiny. Everyday, I choose to identify or create new opportunities for the continual evolution of myself and my family. I refuse to blame others for my own natural laziness and instead fight to overcome these traits by working hard and thinking upward to be a better person every day.

When you define me as “middle class” to me all I hear you saying is: “I should know my role.”

Don’t ever call me middle class again!