So, you are eighteen, you can vote, serve in the military, drive, NOT DRINK, and in most places not buy a gun in your own name.  You have to register for the draft, but there is virtually no way that you will be drafted in this country, giving our national cowardice and willingness to let others do the heavy lifting while you do whatever.  You have probably never held even a part time job, hell you have probably done nothing of note in high school; ROTC, sports, student government….that is stuff others do, not you.  You are likely an EXPERT on one or more of the popular gaming systems sold at Walmart, and probably don’t know your barber by name.  You most likely cannot use a chain saw, have never heard of the Federalist Papers, think that the founders enshrined a “right to privacy”, never rode in a car with window crank handles, never paid your own car insurance, never participated in scouting and most likely have no church affiliation.  There is a better than 95% chance that you will not vote until you have been out of school for a decade, and you almost certainly volunteer nowhere.

YOU, my friend, have come of age in the United States, gone through a rite of passage, inasmuch as we still have those.  In history, throughout the world, all tribal societies, and make no mistake, we are more tribal in this nation now than ever before, have had a “rite of passage” for young men, boys, to be a man.  But not in this nation…..you have turned eighteen; you are now officially a man.  There is no requirement for you to know shit about shit, and at that, many struggle to live up to THAT requirement.

And in most cases we as a society done exactly jack shit to prepare you for it.  

But that is okay…because today we don’t expect a whole hell of a lot from you.

But certain people will use you.  Right now you are being used like a common street whore, or a late night talk show host.  Last month you were watching “Jackass” on MTV, or taking selfies, or reading about the Kardashians over Big Macs, this month people are listening to your views, solemnly nodding as you impart your wisdom on gun control and the need for more and stronger laws.  You have gained this knowledge and expertise NOT because you had a kick ass civics instructor, because we both know to not even joke about THOSE odds, but because the people using you have, for no sound reason, granted you an expertise that you do not possess, and will probably never possess.  In this case the user is the propaganda machine in the nation, formerly know as the “free press” (that would be a forgotten Constitutional term…..and you probably don’t know WHERE in the Constitution it is found).  In this case, the used, or the “mark” is you.

You lucky, newly minted adult you.

BUT….before you go off to serve your new masters, you shiny new adult, let me pass this on to you.  If you haven’t discovered something by this point, allow me to share with you that some people and some institutions are not your friend.  The people that have mobilized you to harness your ignorance, the media, certain elements of the government….they are not your friend.  They confer nothing on you, they only take and they always return less than what they take.  For personal liberty, the ability to be free in your self and possessions and to live more or less undisturbed, our government as currently being exercised is your biggest threat; not the gun, but the government, and their henchmen, the media.

And they are using you.  And when they are finished with you, they will have no more use for you, your work will be of no more importance to them, and the fruits of your labor will have amounted to nothing, except one more opportunity for the government and the media to take one more thing from you, and return less.  You will be no safer.  And depending on the government to fix a problem implies that they can identify the problem, in this case of their own making, and they are not going to do that.

You are eighteen and ready or not, the “government” says you are an adult.

I think you should prove them right for once.