Here’s an older post that I thought would be a good review of the difference between real liberty and license.
Not everyone wants real liberty.
In the United States, we’ve been brought up (well, some of us) to believe that the most important thing that America offers is liberty. We’re taught of Patrick Henry and his impassioned cry, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”. We’re reminded by our national anthem and our history that brave men and women have given their lives to preserve liberty. It’s the reason we celebrate the 4th of July, is it not? We’re celebrating liberty and all that America stands for. And we’re led to believe that all Americans feel the same way. That we’d rather die than give up our liberty.
Now, I’ve written multiple posts on what liberty is, about how liberty does not exist without law. How real liberty is not license, it is responsibility over one’s individual choices.
So, I’m not going to go over all of that again. My post today is short and sweet.
I’m simply recognizing, publicly, that there are many in the United States and in the world, who do not truly want liberty. They want license, but not liberty.
I’d encourage my readers to acknowledge and accept this truth as well.
We Don’t All Want Liberty
As the coronavirus age continues to drag on despite many protesting, rioting and marching about various civil rights issues, I’ve begun to realize that many people want the regulations the government has been more than happy to hand out over the past few months.
In other words, people want government to tell them what to do. They want government to tell them to wear a mask. They want government to tell them how to run their business. They want government to tell them how hot to cook their steak or what temperature to set their air conditioning on in their house. And they want government to tell everyone else how to do those things as well.
This is not liberty. It’s control. And those on the left and on the right who want government to have this kind of control almost feel a sense of control in it themselves. They can control those they disagree with through government. Government is doing them a service by forcing people to wear masks, or dictating which private companies can open and cannot open.
This is where the truth really enters. As long as people don’t have to be responsible for their own actions, those who don’t want real liberty don’t mind what government controls. You see, as I’ve discussed before, true liberty requires responsibility. We must be responsible for our own actions to be truly free. If we mess up, we and we alone reap the consequences. But if we succeed, we and we alone reap the rewards.
Not everyone wants to live in this mindset. And because they don’t want to live in this mindset, they don’t want anyone else to live in this mindset either.
Why?
Because then those who do have personal responsibility and succeed at something have something that those who do not take personal responsibility and therefore do not succeed don’t have: the reward of hard work.
Make sense?
The Irony
The irony, of course, is that, these very people who want more government regulation and control—who see government as the solution to all of life’s problems—will scream and yell at government if government dares to inhibit their license.
Now this is key.
Those who don’t want real liberty still want license. They want the ability to do whatever they want without consequence, which means without responsibility. If they have no responsibility, they won’t suffer the consequences of doing whatever they want. They want to do whatever they want with no repercussions and if they get sick with the coronavirus they can blame government. They want to be whatever sexual orientation they make up, be sexually attracted to any age, have children with ten different women, never commit to a job and work hard at it, be handed all of their grades in college and the list doesn’t stop here, without ever acknowledging or accepting any consequences for their actions.
They don’t really want liberty. They want license.
My friends, license is not worth dying for…license is tyranny in disguise. License leads to chaos and chaos leads to tyranny. These liberty hating individuals may second guess their hate of real liberty once they are under the grips of tyranny and have no license anymore, but by then it’s too late.
Root of the Problem
I’ve been pondering the fact that not everyone in America really wants liberty. And I think the fact that a significant portion of America doesn’t want real liberty is one of the core issues facing us today. We have two different ideologies vying for control of the same country. No wonder those there are those who want the flag removed, American history re-written or destroyed, and all quintessentially American virtues thrown out and replaced. They do not want to live in America because America is synonymous with liberty. It just is. So, if they don’t want liberty they must change the very nature and core of what America is.
Really, what they want is to live is Russia or China but with the benefits and luxury that liberty has given the United States. They’re too spoiled to move to another country. No, they want to turn this country into something else while naively believing that when they do, all of their license will still remain. They can still have their iPhones and AirPods while complaining to the media about being oppressed. .
We’re truly so spoiled in America. We have the luxury to gripe about topics like what bathroom a transgender person is supposed to use, when in many countries such an issue never even enters people’s minds. Why? How could it when they are trying to figure out where to get their next meal, or how to avoid being raped by their family members, or where to find a place to live?
Conclusion
We have the luxury we have in America because of real liberty, because of individuals taking individual responsibility over their actions. Not because of license.
License is what has led to tyranny. Look at the Roman Empire if you need any historical context.
So, the part of our country (not the elites that know what they are doing, but the blind sheep) who just don’t want to live in America and want government control but are too lazy and selfish to leave —- they need to be exposed for what they are. They need to face the fact that they are not fighting for liberty, they are fighting for license. And then they need to either leave or accept the country they are living in.
Because if they don’t and they succeed in changing this country into something else, there will be nowhere left on earth to turn.
Friends, America is it. America is the last bastion of real liberty left. And yes, that is worth fighting for.
The Liberty Belle
Beautifully written! Thank you.
Mike Owens
In the past I have said that the first rule of Conservatism was that the government responsibility is to protect the public and I still believe this is true. Unfortunately we are currently faced with leaders in BOTH parties who either don’t want to take responsibility for their actions or are willing to turn a blind eye and pass the responsibility on to someone else. We have witnessed this when they send our children off to senseless wars that aren’t declared, pass regulations that aren’t thought through or agree to treaties that aren’t going to become effective on their watch. Usually this is accomplished through means that were originally supposed to be temporary i.e. executive orders or national emergency acts but the repercussions become long term.
When our politicians use the term “public health or safety emergency” they feel they have a permanent hall pass to authoritarian of powers that can be exploited at any time and for any reason. Two recent examples come immediately to mind where our elected officials took unconstitutional action for their own benefit ( 2022 mid term elections) and passed the responsibility of enforcing it on to unauthorized entities. I of course refer to President Biden has recently taken upon himself to deputize private business and mandate that the American public get covid shots, leaving the burden of policing and testing upon the employer. The other is when the Republicans in Texas can’t get an abortion bills passed so they get a questionable bill passed and deputize the public as vigilantes to enforce it by ratting on people and get a bounty. Using the term public safety they can and will rationalize almost any action taken by government that gives them monarchical power. In the past Republicans have used it in connection with torturing terrorist. If you rationalize the use of torture as an expedient means of getting information then don’t be outraged when your daughter returns from being held captive and has been raped or your son tortured. Although it is legally and morally reprehensible the enemy can use the same “expedient” excuse. The left loosely used the term in regard to passing Obamacare and how many millions of citizens were uninsured. But these are only a few means of the hypocrisy used today to create laws that our leaders (I use the term loosely) can’t accomplish through legislative means. Following the Vietnam war we have lost the cultural war and faith in religion and other bulwarks of society not to mention recently losing another war which didn’t seem to end nor have any purpose. Americans trust in government is on a razors edge where they either want less government or more with politicians quite willing to provide it but not willing to accept responsibility.
My warning here is regarding following the wants of trolls and grifters who deal in aggrievement over achievement and make unrealistic and unlawful promises to desperate constituents simply to perpetuate their own careers. To question the legality of what is being done under the guise of protecting us. Some people use words not as a tool of knowledge but as a tool of manipulation. It especially galls me when they talk down to us like children by saying “They are getting impatient with our actions”. I got the shot because I believe in science and my age not because of any patriotism or revanchism based on the way either party leans.