Thoughts on liberty

[As the Independence Day weekend winds down, I wanted to post some ideas I have been pondering over the last few months, and finally had the chance to organize a bit. Most of them are developed and expressed much more completely (and coherently) by Hugh Nibley in his essay “The Ancient Law of Liberty”.]

Independence Day is a glorious opportunity to celebrate what is best about America – the privilege of determining the course of our own lives, of worshiping God (or not) according to the dictates of our consciences, to dream and strive to fulfill our dreams – a privilege made possible because of the liberties safeguarded by the government our Founding Fathers created.

This government was established through careful deliberation and under the inspiration of heaven in order to protect our God-given freedoms. Freedom allows for individuals to grow personally through choosing between responsibility and indulgence, truth and error, good and evil. The freedom to choose is fundamental to the path and progress of our lives. Our Founding Fathers did not believe that government is the source of basic human rights – like personal liberty – but that it has the responsibility to protect the freedoms which allow us to exercise those


History is filled with societies whose governments ruled by tyranny of one kind or another. Kings and emporers, often claiming to act as the representatives of God on earth, made it their business to “see to it that everybody is virtuous." On the other hand, as Alexander Hamilton noted in the Federalist, the opposite extreme allows as much opportunity for mischief:

of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

The bottom line is that human designed governments have always drifted towards tyranny, even if doing so was well-meaning at the outset. On July 3rd, 1776 it would be hard to find a society on earth whose members enjoyed the freedom to determine the nature and direction of their own lives. As Thomas Paine wrote:

Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

However, on the Fourth of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence declared God’s law of liberty was in place again on the earth.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

And the people of America received this law with open arms. After the public reading of the Declaration, Samuel Adams (or John depending on the source quoted) noted, "The people, I am told, recognize the resolution as though it were a decree promulgated from heaven."

Freedom, however, is hard to manage. Freedom allows the opportunity to fail, as well as succeed. That possibility, and perhaps the fear of taking responsibility for directing ones own life, leads some to look to an external power to choose for them, to guarantee their safety and provide for their welfare. Many in our own country, the cradle of liberty, now look to the federal government to provide for their welfare. They look to government to replace religion and God as the institution best suited to fix personal and social ills. And many in our government (of both major parties) are quite eager to attempt to fill that role.

Unfortunately, history has shown this to be a sketchy proposition at best. A far-off, dispassionate, bureaucratic government can never make decisions for us as well as we can for ourselves. And granting government the right to direct our lives not only makes for poor choices in individual circumstances but erodes our capacity to make informed, responsible choices in the future. As the habit of ceding self-determination to the government progresses, our capacity to make those choices weakens. Benjamin Franklin described this condition succinctly:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

It is for reasons such as these that religion, which teaches men to govern themselves according to the dictates of their conscience and with an eye towards being accountable to God for their choices, is such an indispensable part of a free society. As George Washington said in his farewell address:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness – these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. … And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is easy to take these things for granted. It is easy to think about our liberties around the 4th of July as we celebrate with fireworks, parades or family gatherings, then return to ‘regular life’, not considering the liberties which make those lives possible until the next year. It seems that the growing shadow of tyranny in our own government has motivated more of us to re-read our Founding documents, try harder to understand the thoughts and intents of those who wrote them, and to do our part to maintain those liberties – just as the Founders did their part to create the government that has protected us for 234 years. I know it has done so for me.