Liberty Papers (4) — Philadelphia Evening Post
To the People of the United States,
Let this be a signal, the air raid siren that lets you know a war has broken out. A distress call, or the signal flare telling of approaching danger. In the city that gave birth to American liberty, we are losing the battle. One does not have to look far in an election year to see the failures of our political class. Where are the statesmen? When did the dignity of public service give way to self-aggrandizement? We don’t often hear any justifications for upholding our American system; we pay lip service to its ideals without much thought of the moral basis behind them. We must fight this war on moral grounds and be whole-hearted in our convictions. Liberty is not a suggestion; it is the basis of our attachment and should remain our ultimate end. To win the battle for liberty we must understand its opponents. On the left we hear “progressive”, connoting what is new, confusing the term’s literal meaning with its political one. On the right, there is an appeal to “conservatism” as if the fact that an idea is old should hold more value than if it is true. When it comes to war, debt, or liberty there is no difference between left and right. Like a marble cake they differ in segmentation and look, but overall it’s one kind of cake. Our capitulation to the status quo, our surrender each election year to the lesser of two evils, and our indifference toward ideas has resulted in a failure to hold on to the vision of our Founders. We must not be apologetic in our defenses but be fully convinced of the value of liberty. What does it say about a nation’s consciousness when blatant deception and illegal acts get reported and swept away — completely forgotten in a single news cycle. There exists a naïve trust in the two parties, but what’s worse is our complacency. The wandering eyes and blank glazed faces, mindlessly cheering applause lines while echoing equally empty breath sums modern political rallies.
“You cannot be, I know, nor do I wish to see you an inactive spectator […] We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.” — Abigail Adams to John Adams, Letter in Braintree, Oct 16th 1774
Words have meaning. There are several entries for freedom in the Oxford English Dictionary, but the two that are intended here are “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint” and “The power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity.” These are not different for anyone. What people choose to do is, but the freedom to do it is not. What is apparent and lacking in our political landscape is a precision of concepts. We have allowed for ambiguity to muddy the water. It seems we cannot speak the word liberty without a breath later snatching its meaning from it. Collectivism is not progressive; individualism is not a value because of tradition. There are a lot of political philosophies about government, and you are entitled to think government has any number of purposes but our government is unique. Ours was the first in history to recognize the moral claim that you have a right to pursue happiness and to live life for your own sake. You are free to hold any opinions, philosophy, or concepts as you wish, but they are and should be open to criticism, analysis, and debate. People are free to think whatever they want, but they are not free from the consequences. It is only greater political freedom that drives progress, and it is individual liberty that allows for the strength of diversity. As disparate values create challenges to freedom and tensions test our resolve, stand nearer, for with union resides all our better nature. If politicians lose sight of our object, let our voices grow louder. Only when reason and morality are absolutes does man stand a chance. To avoid most certain danger, we must never give up the vision of human liberty. With the future of freedom unclear, our signal flares can light the way.
+Senex
@nwsonsofliberty (twitter)