Hear the Thunder
columnist: Gary Wood

Topic: Politics
Liberty is not a statue, liberty is a choice

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It seems, along with love, the word liberty is being used more than ever and people are becoming desensitized to the true meaning of liberty.

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by Gary Wood
(Conservative Libertarian)
Saturday, May 17, 2008

If you take a moment and type in the word 'liberty' into what President Bush refers to as "The Google" you may be surprised at what you find. Returned in a manner of seconds will be about 127,000,000 references for liberty.

At the top of the list the day I did it was libertymedical.com which is a site promoting diabetes supplies. Liberty University will no doubt come up as will Liberty Mutual insurance, Liberty Wire and Cable, Liberty Tax Service (there's an interesting name for an income tax preparation company), the Women's National Basketball Association team from New York, Liberty Mountain Resort and more. Liberty is also used to name a vehicle by Chrysler, the Jeep Liberty. There are other companies as well; Liberty Safes, Liberty Pumps, Liberty Hardware Manufacturing, Liberty Skis, and countless more.

Is it any wonder the majority of citizens today don't have a real understanding of what liberty really is when there is a daily onslaught of companies, slogans, and uses for liberty beyond the foundation our founders developed for the United States? Miriam-Webster's Online Dictionary gives us the following initial definition;

1: the quality or state of being free: a: the power to do as one pleases b: freedom from physical restraint c: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control d: the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges e: the power of choice

It is evident there has been a dilution of understanding when it comes to liberty. In the days this country was founded liberty, along with it's synonym freedom, were well established in the minds of citizens based on the lessons of Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and others. Perhaps one of the best definitions of liberty comes from Ignazio Silone's 'The God that Failed (1950)' when he stated, "Liberty is the possibility of doubting, of making a mistake...of searching and experimenting...of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, social, and even political."

George Bernard Shaw reminded us that, "Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." We see evidence of many who dread the burden of liberty while embracing a cradle to grave change in the United States promising a future of plutocratic control under a democratic socialist approach. Personal responsibility is a fundamental, essential part of maintaining freedom. As our willingness to give responsibility to the government increases our liberty decreases, it is as basic a formula as one plus one.

Robert McCracken stated, "We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls." Yet as generations passed this basic part of our history has been slowly forgotten by far too many. Although we are currently witnessing an assault on our liberty daily the government formed by our Constitution has been whittling away at it for well over a century. According to Daniel Webster, "The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of the executive power." It is the people who must perform this rescue, we were made responsible for maintaining our liberty. However, if we have forgotten what it even means then it is likely we shall lose it.

In 1929's "A Preface to Morals" Walter Lippmann wrote, "Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort which it brings." Liberty is a much harder path to take which is one reason the political promises of change being made this year sounds so good to the ears of so many. With every challenge faced by the people a large percentage choose to ask what the government is going to do rather than what are we going to do. True liberty and freedom is something we simply cannot relate to since it is not a part of most of our life experience. We see the Statue of Liberty and feel a patriotic pride while not understanding what it took from our ancestors to allow us that feeling. We have grown up with an ever increasing level of government interference in our lives and the over commercialization of the word.

I received an email this evening that asked how long do we have? The question referred to how long the United States had left. It recounted, among other things, the process democracy usually takes during roughly a 200 year period of existence as explained in 1787 by Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh. See if this sounds like a familiar path and then answer the question using your own critical thinking skills.

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage'

I believe we are moving through stages 6 and 7. It seems the pace in which we are becoming more dependent is quickening. In addition to the increasing level of dependence is a reduction in either the willingness or the understanding of personal responsibility. There is also strong arguments for the idea we've entered stage 8 based on a lot of the federal government's recent actions in the name of national security and the on-going war on terrorism. It reminds me of what H.L. Mencken (The Sage of Baltimore) wrote in the 1956 Minority Report, "Most people want security in this world, not liberty." Is he right?

Liberty is not a statue or a vehicle or even a tax preparation service, liberty is a choice. The first step in making that choice is learning what it is and to that end there are a growing number of people, especially younger generations, that are undertaking the education process. As more people begin to awaken from the fog of life in these United States the threats to our liberty and our Federalist Republic are being exposed. More exposure creates a real threat to those who, in theory, represent us yet in practice seek further ways to control us. It was this very process of education that created so many enlightened men and gave birth to the very revolution that dared to break away from a powerful monarchy and form a nation, the likes of which had never been seen before.

Knowledge of liberty and freedom stirs within a person's soul until it reaches a point where the idea of personal responsibility becomes clear and, more importantly, right. The choice for liberty always has been and always will be an individual choice. No person can be forced into liberty and freedom. A fundamental responsibility those making the choice face is sharing what they've learned with others. Anyone choosing liberty must become a voice for liberty. Remember George Washington's comparison of government and fire. "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."

From our beginning it was the people who were given the responsibility to tend the fire, to control the government. Never was government meant to control the people since a controlled people are not a free people. Yet we've allowed the fire to burn beyond it's pit, we've left it to ever increasing irresponsible action. Like a wildfire burning through Southern California our government is burning through all of the inalienable rights, by natural law, we were meant to have. Rather than the people restraining the government through the chains of the Constitution our government is restraining us by breaking the very chain our founders believed would contain it. This was the biggest fear for our future George Washington had, that the people would not be ever attentive and vigilant in our responsibility.

In 1922 D.H. Lawrence wrote, "Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves." This is the cycle history teaches us. Today we are witnessing this cycle take hold of our future as we grow more dependent. There is an increasing chant for change, a change that promises more help for those in need, more equality for the poor and struggling, and a fairer system overseen by a caring government. According to Thomas Sowell, "Mystical references to 'society' and its programs to 'help' may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats."

All this may sound as if bondage cannot be avoided but there are many reasons to believe it not only can be but will be avoided. History's lessons teach us exactly what Ludwig Von Mises stated best. "The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster." Think of the course of history being one we learn from and then open your eyes to the awakening taking hold across the country. As more choose liberty, as more become the voice of liberty bondage can be avoided. Literally millions are today willing to accept personal responsibility and are prepared to control government.

Ronald Reagan taught us,"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not our by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again." Bondage can be avoided but will it be? The choice is each of ours to make. We cannot have more government and more liberty, they are not synergistic. When we hear politicians promising us more remember there is only one way to get it and that is by taking it from your neighbor. There is nothing the government can ever give us since the government is the people. As the government gives more the people end up with less.

More freedom, more liberty can be achieved only when we demand less government. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us, "Cowardice asks the question: is it safer? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular - but one must take it simply because it is right."

Liberty is a choice, liberty is right and while you may believe this still you think liberty-minded people are a minority in our country today and you would be correct. Since we've strayed so far from the election process we were suppose to follow to maintain our Federalist Republic ours is more closely a pure democracy where the majority rules. However, listen to Samuel Adams, and listen to him everyday, "...it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." May your mind's fire burn for liberty and all that it offers.

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©2008 by Gary Wood

Liberty's Haven: A Safe Port in Freedom's Stormy Seas

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2008 Gary Wood, all rights reserved.
Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008
Last modified: Saturday, May 17, 2008

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