Musings>Freedom Always in Danger

One of the big things that is supposed to set America apart is freedom. What, exactly, does that mean? Very often it means that I want to be free to ram my ideas down your throat. That is very, VERY human. Lately, Christians have shed many tears because gays forced them to bake cakes for gay weddings they disapprove of. But when the shoe was on the other foot, Christians routinely criminalized gay behavior, even in private. Christians deplore seeing schools used for indoctrination of liberal ideas, but not long ago, Christians were big on prayer and Bible studies in schools, even though there are gay, Muslim, atheist and Jewish students in those same schools. And I'm not beating up on Christians, especially, just pointing out inconsistencies. What seems reasonable when I want it, is unreasonable when you want it.

That said, if you look through history, freedom is a rare and unusual idea. For centuries, the majority of peoples were under somebody's thumb: kings, emperors, popes. A small group pushed around everybody else, and there wasn't much they could do about it. Even today, a lot of the world is ruled that way. People extol democracy, but democracy, even back to the Greeks, has always been rather flawed. People can be swayed by lies, emotion and greed into doing all kinds of stupid things. Freedom in America, although somewhat imperfect, is way better than the way most of the world lives. But it's always in danger.

These days, you look around the world and you see the Canadian government trying to muzzle Canadians. You see the EU trying to muzzle Europeans. You see many other governments of all types trying to muzzle their people.

And you see it here, too!

Sometimes it's liberals. Sometimes it's conservatives. How can that be? But the single biggest moment of late was when 9/11 occurred and people were scared into passing the Patriot Act, applying surveillance to everything and everybody. That was conservatives in action. Then more recently, the Biden administration applied censorship to social media and anybody who opposed its covid measures. Covid was also used to scare people. That's liberals, or perhaps, call them progressives, although many would not call such measures progress.

So can freedom be defined? Not easily because it's enormously broad. But think about this. I can write these thoughts down right now and post them on the Internet and the police probably won't come in the night and arrest me. One of my young fencing students can aspire to study video arts at a California school and nobody will say him nay. Another can study engineering in Colorado and nobody will stop him. Any of us three can take a road trip to anywhere in the country and nobody cares a whit. In countries without freedom, none of this can happen, because everything is controlled. So I think maybe I agree with the Founding Fathers that freedom is worth dying for. Who wants to be a slave?

Current threats to freedom: what I call elsewhere, Hurray for our Side. Anything that pushes you to give up your rights in the name of the common good. That includes fighting terrorism and fighting climate change. All those people are trying to enslave you. Beware! And be AWARE!