Posted by
KsReaganite on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 9:13:26 PM
Ever more so I am firmly convinced that individual liberty, in its deepest sense, is not an enduring element in societies dominated by secular cowards. Put it another way, personal freedoms cannot long survive the death of personal courage and personal faith. The certitude provided by faith does not synchronize too well with those who are jumpy at every fear, real or imagined. It is impossible to replace that certitude except by the illusion that an all-powerful bureaucracy can assure everything is fine. What makes the illusion an illusion rather than a reality is the fact that the only way any human agency can provide fool proof safety from all that ails society is by asking for each of us to give up just a few freedoms. And then some more, as another shadow appears…and then another…and then another. Those who cannot overcome fear, even very legitimate fear, cannot long survive as a free people.
Individual liberty was not meant to be efficient, streamlined, or sealed off from danger. Liberty is inherently a risky proposition which begins to implode when the beneficiaries of that liberty want to eliminate risk out of it entirely.
A society where everyone is a 100 % well fed, 100 % well clothed, 100 % safe, and 100 % efficient is a marvelous wonder of human achievement….and the death of human liberty.