The American way—independence, entrepreneurialism, liberty—has been under assault for decades. The cultural foundations of the United States and its institutions are devolving along the line of some futuristic apocalyptic novel and producing social, moral, and economic dry rot that can lead only to chaos and ruin. Attacks on individuality, freedom and personal responsibility for most of the last century have resulted, as Alexis de Tocqueville once predicted, in a gradual degradation of the people and the descent into slavery of once-free people. Crushing the Collective illuminates the very real dangers of the socialistic mind-set that is currently threatening Americans’ freedoms and the very existence of our great nation. As Benjamin Franklin said, “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” Therefore, we must know the destructive history of nations drawn into the collectivist deceit, or we will be doomed to follow their same paths. In Crushing the Collective author Charles Sasser explores the various collectivization philosophies, processes, and movements that have destroyed individual freedom in their drive toward the collective utopian state. In collectivist nations like Cuba, Russia, China, and North Korea the dependence came by tyrannical force. Even the path of “soft socialism” that progresses stealthily toward greater and greater government control is inevitably a slippery slope to ultimate destruction. During Rome’s final days people were so distracted by social decadence, hedonism, materialism, corruption, and rejection of basic truths that they failed to notice their rights and liberties were being dismantled. No one remembered and stood up for their foundational values. Rome suffered from excess which led to laziness which led to tyranny. Americans today are buying into the same mind-set as evidenced by twice electing to the presidency Barack Obama, a leader who believed the people were too selfish, greedy, and reckless to make economic decisions for themselves. Scottish professor Alexander Tyler describes an endless cycle societies undergo, from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from great courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and from dependency back to bondage. As a historian, Charles Sasser makes the case in Crushing the Collective that America is in the dependency stage and that we are witnessing and living through what can only be the political, cultural and economic decline of the United States and the fall of Western Civilization. And yet though America has been cut to the core, the liberty tree has not yet collapsed. Crushing the Collective is in the end a powerful wake-up call for free people of character, conviction, and courage to stand up against the collective madness and together, restore America as the beacon of freedom it once was, and must be again.
Charles W. Sasser has been a full-time freelance writer/journalist/photographer since 1979. He is a veteran of both the U.S. Navy (journalist) and U.S. Army (Special Forces, the Green Berets), a combat veteran and former combat correspondent wounded in action. He also served fourteen years as a police officer (in Miami, Florida, and in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was a homicide detective). He has taught at universities, lectured nationwide, and traveled extensively throughout the world. He has published over 2,500 articles and short stories in magazines ranging from Guideposts, Parents and Christian Life to Soldier of Fortune, True West, and Writer's Digest. He is author, co-author or contributing author of more than 30 books and novels.
As an adventurer, Sasser has, at various times: solo-canoed across the Yukon; sailed the Caribbean; motorbiked across the continent; rode camels in the Egyptian desert; floated the Amazon River; dived for pirate treasure; rode horses across Alaska; motorcycled Europe; climbed Mount Rainier; ran with the bulls in Spain; chased wild mustangs...
He has been a professional rodeo clown and bronc rider; professional kickboxer; sky diver and SCUBA diver; college professor; newspaperman; archaeologist/anthropologist...
Sasser now lives on a ranch in Chouteau, Oklahoma with wife Donna where he is a writer, rancher, and businessman who trains horses and team ropes. He also has a private pilot's license and is an ultralite aircraft Certified Flight Instructor.
Crushing the Collective is a scary but realistic look at what is happening in America. It should be a must-read for everyone. Instead it will probably be banned.