Did he conceive tyranny to mean despotic rule only? If so why would he say "every form of tyranny"?

He was speaking of tyranny over the mind and not the body. Why? Why was this kind of tyranny so disagreeable to him? In ancient Greece a tyranny referred to a government, which took power without the right to do so, to rule without right whether benevolent or despotic. The controlling of a person's mind without their awareness, in my opinion, is the ultimate tyranny. It is this form of tyranny I wish to address.

Do we as individuals have inalienable rights? Do we have the inalienable right to the preservation of life and liberty? Do we own ourselves? Does the "right" to the preservation of life depend on the permission or control of government? Does the government have the power to determine how much of your laboring to sustain your life will be forfeited to the state? Can a right be taxed? Do you have a right to your sanity?

What is sanity? Well we know that when people are found insane then they are said to be not responsible for their actions. So those who are responsible for their actions must therefore be "sane". If there is tyranny over a mind then that mind is neither sane, free or responsible for itself.

Think about this concept for a minute, when this country began the people were neither dependent on the government for their existence nor was their labor confiscated by the government. The country began under the premise that we all had an inalienable right to life and that rights could not be taxed.

In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that governments were instituted among men to secure our rights. Is that what our government does today when it requires that many give up great portions of their property/labor for the benefit of of those whom politicians deem fit to reward?

Mike Benoit