Liberty

Always A Good Idea

Liberty refers to freedom in a free from control by others context, whereas the word freedom is more broad. You may be free of disease, free of debt, and so on, but people often use the word freedom as a synonym for liberty.

From the American Heritage Dictionary, definition of Liberty:

noun

1. The condition of being free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor.

2. The condition of being free from oppressive restriction or control by a government or other power.

3. A right to engage in certain actions without control or interference by a government or other power.

   "the liberties protected by the Bill of Rights."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition • More at Wordnik

We always have a tension between those seeking to impose control and seek to diminish individual liberty versus those wishing for more liberty . It's not even clear how many people really want liberty, some just want to be taken care of. Do you desire freedom more than power, or power more than freedom? Of course, people generally desire both, so it's a matter of relative importance. To be sure, part of the desire for power comes from the freedom that the power gives, as well as the fact that an increase in freedom provides a type of power in itself, but still it is a basic character facet. This part of ones character induces a subtle bias on many decisions a person makes through life. Do you prefer living in the country or the city? Would you take a high paying job over the chance to start your own business? What would you do to obtain or maintain power? At work, would you only associate with those who can enhance your power?

A major issue is, how does a people maintain liberty, given the forces working against it? It's axiomatic that those who want power more than freedom will gravitate to professions that enhance power, that power attracts the corruptible, and that power corrupts. After enough time one ends up with a large group of those seeking power in positions of power, a type of bureaucratic feudalism may ensue, such as that which now infects the United States, and it might take a Trump/Musk coalition just to hack away some of the roots.

"Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us." ~ Thomas Jefferson

How often during the recent pandemic festivities have you been told “stay safe”? How often has someone replied “stay free” or “stay brave”, or even better, “stay brave, stay free?” Why not? People were quite fearful at the time, so it would seem to be vital to remind others as well as oneself of the importance of not succumbing to fear. I encourage all to respond to “stay safe” with “stay brave, stay free”. What makes it so important? Acting and speaking as though you are not afraid will actually make you less so, and saying “stay brave, stay free” may help the other person retain his courage. The words themselves remind us that being fearful is part of the road to serfdom. Also, a fearful people may not speak the truth when confronted with the lies of the powerful. We tend to become over time the way we act.

The US Constitution was set up to provide for individual liberty by putting constraints on government power, but over time the powerful slowly found ways around the restrictions.

"The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot give the factory-worker a rifle and tell him to take it home and keep it in his bedroom. That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage, is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there." George Orwell

"An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well armed and free. The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants." - Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince" (1532)

Popular among 2A supporters is the idea of the four boxes. The idea is that the protections to liberty contained in the Bill of Rights consist of the ballot box, the jury box, the soap box and the cartridge box. Upon inspection one notices that only the last consists of real, physical objects. A tyrannical government may simply do away with voting, corrupt the court system and eliminate freedom of speech. They would no doubt declare the private possession of arms to be illegal, but collecting them would be a monumental task. To that end we are constantly told that being an armed populace of of no value, much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz being told that the ruby slippers were of no help to her, then being told by the witch of the north that their power must be very great or she wouldn't want them so badly.

We're always up against a sort of slow erosion of liberty due to the steady concentration of power in spite of the constitutional limits, a sort of fundamental political problem, one that exists in all times and countries.

"When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Stay Brave, Stay Free