What is Liberty?
What is seemingly a quite simple question can, many times, be a very difficult one to find an answer to. Certainly, many people have varying opinions and views of politics, foreign affairs and even sports, but why the confusion when defining a simple word that has been so eloquently done many times before. To me, and many libertarians, liberty is the right to be left alone; the freedom to succeed, or even fail, by my own accord with neither the support nor control of another man.
To others, liberty seems to be a singular concept, solely held only unto themselves, that as long as they are happy, they have liberty. As Thomas Jefferson so wisely stated, we have only the right to pursue happiness, there can be no guarantees.
Just as with clothing and music, politics runs a very basic cycle. As we are now revisiting the fashion and music of the 1980's in America, we are in the midst of a political cycle. However, the latter has far more serious consequences than does the former. A quote regularly attributed to Alexander Tyler sums this cyclical concept up very clearly and almost prophetically:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
I know what the natural thought is at this point: "democracy has to be the right thing, that is what all the politicians say and even my history teacher told me democracy is good." Wrong! Democracy and liberty have very little to do with one another and are often time very much the antithesis of each other. None of our founding documents even utter the word democracy and, as a matter of fact, to my knowledge not a single state constitution contains that word. With our Founding Fathers' seemingly infinite wisdom, how could they have possibly left out that one little word that all of our present day presidents espouse as our foundation for liberty and freedom in this country. Simple, they didn't! They knew then that democracy is little more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. Unfortunately though, the Founders expected us to value our liberty as much as they did theirs.
If there was a flaw in their grand design of America, it was trust. Trust that people would not take their freedoms for granted, that the generations that inherited the legacy of liberty they built would appreciate that legacy and willingly bear the responsibility of preserving that freedom. When Jefferson wrote:
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
He warned us against resting on our laurels, and I would even argue he warned us against misplaced patriotism. Patriotism born of nostalgia is naïve and will be the guide that carries us into the chains of slavery to the state. Case in point would be the "Patriot Act" which could more appropriately be called the anti-patriot act. In that case President Bush, as accused by many liberals, cloaked his pseudo-socialist ideals in patriotism. Our politicians strip our liberties by appealing to our love of this great country and the ideals, and lives, it was built upon. They offer us a watered-down security in exchange for some seemingly petty liberties. Franklin warned us that "any man who would trade liberty for security, deserves neither" and I would argue he will get neither as well.
So, where are we in Alexander Tyler's sequence? At the very least, we are at apathy, at worst, dependency. What will it take to preserve this great republic that was entrusted to us? Are we truly willing to pay the price of liberty, or is pseudo-security enough for us these days. I truly hope we find out the answers to these questions soon, for bondage is, most certainly, not more than a step or two away. Perhaps a good start would be replacing the Pledge of Allegiance recited in schools to this:
"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the
sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
-John Galt
Just as with clothing and music, politics runs a very basic cycle. As we are now revisiting the fashion and music of the 1980's in America, we are in the midst of a political cycle. However, the latter has far more serious consequences than does the former. A quote regularly attributed to Alexander Tyler sums this cyclical concept up very clearly and almost prophetically:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
I know what the natural thought is at this point: "democracy has to be the right thing, that is what all the politicians say and even my history teacher told me democracy is good." Wrong! Democracy and liberty have very little to do with one another and are often time very much the antithesis of each other. None of our founding documents even utter the word democracy and, as a matter of fact, to my knowledge not a single state constitution contains that word. With our Founding Fathers' seemingly infinite wisdom, how could they have possibly left out that one little word that all of our present day presidents espouse as our foundation for liberty and freedom in this country. Simple, they didn't! They knew then that democracy is little more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. Unfortunately though, the Founders expected us to value our liberty as much as they did theirs.
If there was a flaw in their grand design of America, it was trust. Trust that people would not take their freedoms for granted, that the generations that inherited the legacy of liberty they built would appreciate that legacy and willingly bear the responsibility of preserving that freedom. When Jefferson wrote:
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
He warned us against resting on our laurels, and I would even argue he warned us against misplaced patriotism. Patriotism born of nostalgia is naïve and will be the guide that carries us into the chains of slavery to the state. Case in point would be the "Patriot Act" which could more appropriately be called the anti-patriot act. In that case President Bush, as accused by many liberals, cloaked his pseudo-socialist ideals in patriotism. Our politicians strip our liberties by appealing to our love of this great country and the ideals, and lives, it was built upon. They offer us a watered-down security in exchange for some seemingly petty liberties. Franklin warned us that "any man who would trade liberty for security, deserves neither" and I would argue he will get neither as well.
So, where are we in Alexander Tyler's sequence? At the very least, we are at apathy, at worst, dependency. What will it take to preserve this great republic that was entrusted to us? Are we truly willing to pay the price of liberty, or is pseudo-security enough for us these days. I truly hope we find out the answers to these questions soon, for bondage is, most certainly, not more than a step or two away. Perhaps a good start would be replacing the Pledge of Allegiance recited in schools to this:
"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the
sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
-John Galt
Warren Mills,
Milton, Florida
Milton, Florida
