Freedom

It seems to be a common denominator in this correspondence. Freedom is Free! Freedom is a wonderful thing. There are, however, different kinds of freedom. I believe that things like the freedom of thought, political freedom, and religious freedom are inalienable and obtained simply by the existence of the individual, a birthright if you will. But there are other freedoms, like freedom from want and freedom from fear. Notice the 'from'. Those are things that one isn't born with, but are goals that perhaps can never be fully realized. The role of society is to protect the first, and to encourage the latter.

Our Constitution does not grant us rights, but acknowledges that they exist. This is fundamental to our philosophy. The Founders thought this to be fundamental, but just in case there was misunderstanding, they wrote it into the Bill of Rights. The most dangerous threat to our way of life is the voices that wish to make the people believe that somehow the government is the sole distributor of rights. They wish to make the people believe that merely because we are Americans, we have the privilege of speech or the privilege of free association. These are not privileges, of course, they are inalienable rights. Since they are inalienable, no one can take them away either. The government's prime purpose is to protect these rights, and to punish those who interfere with the rights of others. But in the end, no person's rights can be taken away. I believe it is futile to encourage Freedom in society but at the same time enforce slavery in the prisons. Fyodor Dostoevsky said, "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." I say the degree if Freedom in a society can be judged(and judged best) by entering its prisons. The more free a society is, the less prisoners it keeps. Just look at the correlation between the amount of legislation and prison population over time. I also believe the more a society respects private property, the more the individual respects others property. It would be wrong for an individual to steal money from another person, property only the owner has sole claim to. Most people accept that as a moral truth, however our own government imposes an income tax on all its citizens. What claim does the government have on anyone's private property? Any claim the government makes on private property must be viewed as an act of oppression, reducing the individual to the status of a slave. Yet we put common thieves in prison every day when the greatest thief of all is our own IRS. You see, you cannot have it both ways. The government must not be treated different than any individual.

Freedom exists innately. Another one of the greatest threats to Liberty and Freedom is collectivism. Collectivism assumes that the masses are superior to individual. It assumes that the welfare of the masses are more important to the welfare of the individual and that the individual must make sacrifices for the masses. It honors the altruist. Freedom can never be protected in a collective because the collective requires the unquestioned sacrifice by the individual. I suggest the greatest collective institution in our government is the Federal Income Tax. The Income Tax requires the monetary sacrifice by the individual for the collective good. It suggests that the freedom from want and fear can be concretely realized. The government wants you to think that one day, if you keep paying your taxes, we'll be living in paradise. What an outrageous claim! We can never be free from want and fear, but we can and should always try. It is, however, the individual who can best get closer to that goal. In socialism, the collective decides what 'want' and 'fear' is. But of course the wants and fears of individuals differs immensely.

The Founders knew all of this. They understood these ideas before the words socialism or corporatism existed. The British Crown oppressed the American Colonies by laying taxes without the representation of the people. They oppressed religious opinions by sending religious dissenters to the Colonies. They enforced their laws by military occupation. Out of this tyranny came our very special system of government. An experiment doomed from the start by the critics, however, more than two centuries later the experiment continues. But Freedom is the fundamental ingredient in this experiment. Like I have said earlier, Freedom comes with no obligation or requirement, it is the most innate of all things. Freedom is FREE!