The Land of the Free - Conservative Politics Web Site

Liberty as a Pillar by Jeff Jackson 02/10/03
The Land of the Free - A Conservative Politics Web Site

Liberty is a core principle set forth by those that sought to liberate this once fledgling nation. It was so important in fact that they specifically enumerated it in the writing of our Declaration of Independence.

In and of itself, liberty encompasses all the other basic principles to be found and set forth as rights that we in this nation a privileged to. A right to liberty begets all other rights that we are to have. For liberty is in its essence freedom unfettered. We need only look at the dictionary to see it defined as such: "the condition of being free from restriction or control", "the right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing" and even "the condition of being physically and legally free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor."

Liberty is freedom.

And knowing this, it must be the single most important responsibility of ours to maintain fervently our liberty above all else because without liberty all our other rights are baseless.

Liberty is a pillar

It is a pillar that reaches and holds us up from the scattered rocks of the road that are so often trampled and abused. Our individual pillar of liberty stands tall. And as we allow our pillar to stand, we keep ourselves from being trampled and oppressed but only in as long as we actively defend our pillar of liberty. And our pillar stands in a sea of pillars; the pillars of our fellow countrymen each standing tall and free.

Liberty must be actively defended. For there are many ways in which the pillar of liberty is destroyed. It can be knocked down and scattered in with the trodden stones of the road in one mighty swoop by those with the force to do so. It can also to whittled away with the smallest chisel until the pillar becomes weak and collapses beneath it's own weight. Then our pillar is nothing more than broken rock which is to be trampled.

Even weak and half hearted vigilance can detect the mighty attack seeking to fell the pillar in one blow. These attacks upon liberty, our freedom, are bold and easy to rally against for even one not so keen to protect their own rights can see it. But weak and halfhearted vigilance can not detect the slow erosion of the pillar's base. Faint attention to the ongoings of those that seek to undermine liberty will not be enough. It has never been enough. For the erosion is so gradual that it can not be spotted with a passing inspection from time to time. And that is how those that would undermine liberty will seek to topple it.

They would rely upon the complacentness of the passive patriot who is not aware of the minute details but still loves his liberty. They rely upon the use of stealth and erosion to conceal themselves from the less than watchful eyes. And they will seek to do all that they do in the very name of protection of that liberty by heaping upon the liberty rules and laws which, by their very nature, serve to impose not liberty, but oppression.

And as more and more of these weighty protections are heaped upon the pillar of liberty and into our arms, it may very well collapse from the burden. Over regulation does not serve to enhance liberty, but to empower oppression.

There is a framework of Liberty

Our founders did not just promote to us the principles of freedom. This freedom was framed between two other other basics rights; two caveats if you will. They are the right to Life and the right to pursue happiness. And we should not over look the symbolic order which places Liberty between these two other rights. For liberty without being framed is also the unobstructed right to infringe upon another's right to liberty in the name of your own liberty. Unobstructed liberty becomes anarchy. And anarchy is the prevalence of the liberty of only the most powerful. At that point there is not longer liberty for all, but rather the oppression of the many and the empowerment of the few.

But when we take the universal right to Liberty and add the rights of Life and pursuit of happiness, and also the notion of "all men are created equal", liberty not only becomes a right but also a responsibility. It becomes a responsibility for all to make sure that no one's Liberty, no one's pillar, shall infringe upon other's rights to these total tenants. Only once combined Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness along with the notion of equal creation can freedom be ensured.

And only when all three rights are combined with the notion of equality of creation do they promote the order that must exist for a society to flourish. For they remind us that our Liberty is not unobstructed, but confined by the rights of others around us and that our Liberty must not be allowed to infringe upon them, nor thier's upon us.

Liberty framed between its sister rights provides us for a basis of our laws and structure for our society. And these laws must always be designed to treat all equally. Liberty must be applied equally to all or there can be no liberty for anyone.

Thus the pillar of liberty can not stand alone for it would be torn down by those with greater strength seeking to enhance their own liberty. It is supported by its brethren. And they serve to reinforce it. But they are not more powerful than it. So now we must not only be vigilant against those that would erode the base of our Liberty, but also those that would erode our rights to life and to pursue happiness as well as those that would promote that certain people are created more equal than others.

If the passive patriot could not spot the degradation of one of our core rights, they can not hope to see the erosion of the others.

Thus we are all required to be carriers of the torch of vigilance. And our enemies would surely pray upon those that are not of the caliber to carry this light. They would pray upon them by convincing these passive patriots that they are more capable of administering such common sense ideals as those enumerated upon our independence.

Delegation of Responsibility is faulty

The responsibility to be vigilant when protecting liberty can not be delegated. Those that would be so quick to allow their rights to be administered by others are the same that would be the last to notice when the last of their liberty is gone. And there are many that will jump at the opportunity to administer our liberty. Far too many people are of the misguided belief that one's liberty comes from the over regulation of activities and that liberty can only be preserved when they are in control.

To the contrary. Liberty is persevered by being diligent in our selfish desire to maintain it. Liberty is not preserved by the regulation of freedoms, but by the unfettered expansion of personal rights up to the boarder where they infringe upon the rights of another.

My liberty can never be promoted to the point where it infringes upon the right to another's life, nor can another's pursuit of happiness infringe upon my liberty. And it is not by coincidence that the right to Life comes before Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The right to life is itself a Liberty, to be sure, but the appearance of it first warns us that above all other freedoms that we partake of, Life is the greatest liberty of all.

Those that seek to administer our liberties seek to restrict our fundamental rights and our life. The administration of Liberty is not accomplished through the legislation of overly burdensome laws and hindrances. And these laws restrict your right to pursue happiness, partake of liberty, and sometime even one's right to life. And as more and more laws are passed, each of these core rights becomes more burdened trying to maintain the weight.

Common Sense Protects Rights

Common sense says that a man who murders another man in cold blood has deprived his victim of the right to life. And it is the application of common sense which must be used to protect our core rights and not the laws of those that would seek to administer our freedoms. Common sense, applied and practiced in its purest form is the only true way to guard the pillar of liberty.

But we must be aware of common sense bastardized to the point where it contradicts its true application. This false common sense must be struck down and stamped out. For it will grow to a mighty torrent designed to erode our liberty. In essence, the base of the the column of liberty is common sense. And no column can stand without its base.

Rights Beyond the Reach of Government

Our enumerated rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are not, however, rights granted by man to man. If they were, man and the government by man could at any time strip away these rights.

Such rights are inalienable. And we are granted them not from our fellows, but are endowed with them by their creator. And stemming from the our creator and not from man means that man and government can not take them away. Man is not more powerful than his creator. And only by placing these rights beyond the reach of man can we in ensure our rights as protected into the future.

So we see that while our liberty is about the right to freedom we are reminded that our liberty does not stand by itself. We must remember that it is supported and in reality bounded by other tenants and granted to us by our creator. The boundary we place upon liberty is only in so far as such liberty infringes upon the rights of others. For all men, women, children, of all races and creeds must remain equal before the hand of liberty and our creator. And the only way to do that is to encase our liberty, but not to encase it to the point where liberty is restricted for no cause.

The greatest Liberties we partake of are those of life and pursing happiness and we should never give them up.

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