Freedom Takes Courage

Posted on February 3, 2011 by David Thomas in Opinion

The question is often posed, “do all men really want to be free?” I think there is certainly more than one answer, but my first response is, unfortunately, a resounding “no!”

How can this be? Our brethren (and sistren?) have died for years defending this basic founding principle of our republic, this basic tenet that Liberty is an essential right of being alive, and yet the evidence is all around us that a sizable chunk of our fellow mortals are afraid of Freedom.

That is a big intellectual step, but it is, I think, correct. Our founders were people of great courage, for many the signing of the Declaration of Independence brought personal and financial destruction, as has been noted (and exaggerated) by others. It takes courage to willingly be personally responsible for yourself, and to stand up for your beliefs, you philosophy, even in the face of death. I think that while many of us, when tested, would stand up to that kind of historical example, many would not.

How can I say such a horrible thing? Well, look around you. How many of the people in your life are truly free, truly living that courageous life of personal responsibility? I know that I fail to reach that standard often. How many are active participants in their own lives, and not just along for the ride? I don’t want to get all Steven Covey on this topic, and am not interested in writing a self-help article, but there exist variations of the 90-10 rule all over the place: 90% of the work is done by 10% of the workers. I’ve seen the 90-9-1 rule in social media that states that an even tinier portion actually does the work. US IRS numbers (2005 stats) make it clear that the top 25% pay 86% of the taxes, and even more revealing, they earned 67.25% of the money. Extend that down to the top 50% of wage earners, and they earned 87% of the income and paid 97% of the taxes.

What’s the point? Half of us are carrying the other half and that’s how the bottom half wants it. What? Seriously? Yes. Let me explain.

One of the things that makes America exceptional is that we are the exception to so much of history. Representative republic under the rule of law? A historical aberration. Free market capitalism coupled with individual liberty and religious freedom? Unheard of. Not the Romans, Greeks, Macedonians, not the Magna Carta, or the Iroquois Confederacy created what we have had. It flies in the face of a significant part of human nature, because from the time we are born, we seek to be comforted, to be taken care of, “to have our needs met” as my psychology professors have said. Our success as a nation has been because of those of us, the half that overcome that desire to be taken care of and replaced it with the desire to achieve have been enabled by the beautiful way that our country, America, has removed the roadblocks, to grow up from our infantile needs and become productive adults. These people, like our Founders, are the exception, the 10% of the 90-10 rule.

The rest, the bottom half wants to be taken care of. They want welfare, single-payer health care, Earned Income Tax credits, and all the rest because they lack the courage to grow up and take care of themselves. They don’t want to be free, because they are afraid of the responsibility that being free implies, in fact, demands of them. That rugged individualism that is a hallmark of our culture (mythical or real, it matters not) is scary because there is no safety net, and our modern system of handouts has sucked that spirit out of that same bottom half. If there is an “out” people will take it, and if there is no “out” some will rise and many will not.

I used to ask my students, especially the struggling ones, “Are you average? Are you?” No one wants to think that they are average, and I found that challenging them to acknowledge that helped them not be average. America used to challenge all of us to be exceptional by removing the roadblocks to remaining infantile and allowing us to grow up. The more it “gives” us, the less we can grow.

Tags: 90-10 rule, freedom