The Cost of Liberty
Gary Loftis
June 13, 2008
I just watched Mel Gibson´s epic film, Braveheart, again, and it strikes me that this movie´s message is badly needed today across our land.
Americans have become lazy and complacent; we have lost touch with the sacrifices of brave men and women who saw a free nation as more important than personal gain. Another recent film from HBO, John Adams, portrays the challenges and conflicts from which our nation was born. Gibson´s The Patriot ably depicts Revolutionary War from a colonist´s perspective. I offer these films for those who believe our freedom could be created -- or sustained --- through intellectual exercise or diplomacy.
America´s liberty is not a testament to the absolute freedom of speech that condones desecration of the flag and outright sedition as legitimate expressions. On the contrary, our liberty attests to the moral courage of the majority of Americans who have, for more than two centuries, chosen to sublimate their personal urges to the rule of law. After traveling in our nation and observing American life, French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, "America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
In the 1960s a pampered generation of young people -- and, ultimately, our whole nation -- deluded itself into believing that truth and reality could be redefined to suit individual wants. Sex and drugs were merely recreational; traditional morality and self-control were for losers. Responsibility for one´s actions was out and, with Lyndon Johnson´s "War on Poverty," it was replaced by entitlements. One´s standard of living was no longer about how hard you studied and worked, but what the government owes you. No less than Albert Einstein said,"The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle."
In 2008, the entitlement mentality has permeated every level of American government. If you worked hard, saved regularly, and spent responsibly, the Congress (both parties) and those who did not act so responsibly feel entitled to take more of what you have, because the fact that you have it is "unfair." We have lost sight of the fact that property rights was one of the tenets upon which our nation was founded. The brave men and women who fled Europe to settle what became the United States knew what it was like to be taxed arbitrarily and to be condemned to work for someone else´s prosperity; the right to own property and build family wealth was important to them. Somehow, the Marxist idea that personal equality means equal outcomes has crept into our national psyche. Perhaps it is because we have become so prosperous that an inordinate number of Americans now enjoy the leisure to occupy themselves with the study of theoretical matters, without the need of consulting reality. I think, however, that Marxism is an easy tool for those who wish to control power, which, in a free society, is money. Economist and author Richard Ebeling writes: "As long as many people want government to use its power to tax and regulate to benefit them at the expense of others, it will retain its power and continue to grow."
Taxation and "fairness" have distracted our nation from its initial vision, that of personal liberty: the right to determine you own course in life and pursue it. In the countries our forefathers left behind, only the aristocracy had access to education and to the professions of law, medicine, and politics. The arts and even reading were beyond the reach of "commoners." In 230 years, that has changed in our nation. Now, if one works hard enough, studies diligently, possesses the native ability, and stays the course, no dream is impossible in this country. However, that accomplishment is put at at risk today by a government more concerned with ethnic percentages among the successful and the economic disparity between those arbitrarily designated "rich" and "poor" than in safeguarding every citizen's freedoms.
The American government was not constituted to enforce some arbitrary concept of fairness -- any such measure is innately arbitrary and subjective -- but to "...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…" (Preamble to the US Constitution) Liberty, it seems, has dropped from our sights, replaced by self-interest and greed. The concept of liberty having a cost is now as foreign to many Americans as is the idea of a monarch, but tyranny has many faces. There is no difference between a tyrant who wrests control of a nation and one elected by an uninformed electorate. And there is nothing more bereft of principle than a people who are unwilling to go to war to defend their own freedom.
Perhaps Thomas Jefferson was more a visionary than most of us thought when he wrote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." It seems Mr. Jefferson foresaw corrosive effect that greed and intellectual complacency would have on the historic experiment in freedom that he was pivotal in creating.
In Braveheart, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson), an actual historic Scottish patriot, addressed the Scottish nobles who hesitated to got to war against Edward Longshanks, the king of England, for fear of losing their lands and titles. His words should be mandatory memorization for every elected official: "You believe the people exist to provide you with positions. I believe your positions exist to provide the people with freedom."
Copyright 2008, Gary Loftis. All Rights Reserved.
Americans have become lazy and complacent; we have lost touch with the sacrifices of brave men and women who saw a free nation as more important than personal gain. Another recent film from HBO, John Adams, portrays the challenges and conflicts from which our nation was born. Gibson´s The Patriot ably depicts Revolutionary War from a colonist´s perspective. I offer these films for those who believe our freedom could be created -- or sustained --- through intellectual exercise or diplomacy.
America´s liberty is not a testament to the absolute freedom of speech that condones desecration of the flag and outright sedition as legitimate expressions. On the contrary, our liberty attests to the moral courage of the majority of Americans who have, for more than two centuries, chosen to sublimate their personal urges to the rule of law. After traveling in our nation and observing American life, French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, "America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
In the 1960s a pampered generation of young people -- and, ultimately, our whole nation -- deluded itself into believing that truth and reality could be redefined to suit individual wants. Sex and drugs were merely recreational; traditional morality and self-control were for losers. Responsibility for one´s actions was out and, with Lyndon Johnson´s "War on Poverty," it was replaced by entitlements. One´s standard of living was no longer about how hard you studied and worked, but what the government owes you. No less than Albert Einstein said,"The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle."
In 2008, the entitlement mentality has permeated every level of American government. If you worked hard, saved regularly, and spent responsibly, the Congress (both parties) and those who did not act so responsibly feel entitled to take more of what you have, because the fact that you have it is "unfair." We have lost sight of the fact that property rights was one of the tenets upon which our nation was founded. The brave men and women who fled Europe to settle what became the United States knew what it was like to be taxed arbitrarily and to be condemned to work for someone else´s prosperity; the right to own property and build family wealth was important to them. Somehow, the Marxist idea that personal equality means equal outcomes has crept into our national psyche. Perhaps it is because we have become so prosperous that an inordinate number of Americans now enjoy the leisure to occupy themselves with the study of theoretical matters, without the need of consulting reality. I think, however, that Marxism is an easy tool for those who wish to control power, which, in a free society, is money. Economist and author Richard Ebeling writes: "As long as many people want government to use its power to tax and regulate to benefit them at the expense of others, it will retain its power and continue to grow."
Taxation and "fairness" have distracted our nation from its initial vision, that of personal liberty: the right to determine you own course in life and pursue it. In the countries our forefathers left behind, only the aristocracy had access to education and to the professions of law, medicine, and politics. The arts and even reading were beyond the reach of "commoners." In 230 years, that has changed in our nation. Now, if one works hard enough, studies diligently, possesses the native ability, and stays the course, no dream is impossible in this country. However, that accomplishment is put at at risk today by a government more concerned with ethnic percentages among the successful and the economic disparity between those arbitrarily designated "rich" and "poor" than in safeguarding every citizen's freedoms.
The American government was not constituted to enforce some arbitrary concept of fairness -- any such measure is innately arbitrary and subjective -- but to "...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…" (Preamble to the US Constitution) Liberty, it seems, has dropped from our sights, replaced by self-interest and greed. The concept of liberty having a cost is now as foreign to many Americans as is the idea of a monarch, but tyranny has many faces. There is no difference between a tyrant who wrests control of a nation and one elected by an uninformed electorate. And there is nothing more bereft of principle than a people who are unwilling to go to war to defend their own freedom.
Perhaps Thomas Jefferson was more a visionary than most of us thought when he wrote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." It seems Mr. Jefferson foresaw corrosive effect that greed and intellectual complacency would have on the historic experiment in freedom that he was pivotal in creating.
In Braveheart, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson), an actual historic Scottish patriot, addressed the Scottish nobles who hesitated to got to war against Edward Longshanks, the king of England, for fear of losing their lands and titles. His words should be mandatory memorization for every elected official: "You believe the people exist to provide you with positions. I believe your positions exist to provide the people with freedom."
Copyright 2008, Gary Loftis. All Rights Reserved.
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