“For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail?”

yes!

Indeed.

Being a victim or beneficiary of the welfare state is not being free. I would rather live in a mud hut then take unearned money extracted at the point of a gun by the government. Pity so many have lost this true love of freedom.

Good to dissent and be the vocal minority while skirting the tyrant's violent revenge. Better to die in the cause of freedom then live in tyranny. Best to live victorious with the threat extinguished and liberty secured for the next generation.

The beneficiaries of our welfare state have no desire to be other than a slave because they neither want nor take responsibility for themselves. They just take more and more and more from the government, and government gives and gives and gives of our money ... not theirs.

A rich slave is still a slave.

I don't know how to respond to this directly. We need an ideological belief methodology to guide us, to give us the sense of right so we understand the correct procedure in every situation. You must have an ideological bases for your sense of freedom. Socialism is vision of social abilities to create.