Freedom vs License

We hear many people claiming that certain things are their right because this is a “free” country. And quite often, we succumb to their demands, even though what they demand as a freedom is not freedom at all, but license. One cannot have true freedom without discipline. These people demanding these licentious “freedoms” want to do away completely with discipline. “Freedom is the ‘right’ to do whatever I want, regardless.” Often they add on to that, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.” That is a bogus claim, because any licentious behaviour is bound to hurt someone else. Everything everyone does touches other people in one way or another. We have a group clamoring to legalize illicit drugs, insisting that the users hurt no one but themselves. And not all of these are users, although a good percentage of them are. So, who is hurt by someone who uses, say, for example, marijuana? This is the drug most often demanded to be legalized. It has been called a gateway drug. Some people insist that it isn’t. People who have worked with drug users say otherwise. Even if marijuana is non-addictive (as many claim), it is likely to promote the desire for a greater high. Many addictive behaviours do the same. And who is it hurting beside the user? At the least, the user’s family. At the most, society in general.

We are right now in the process of giving into the demands for homosexual marriage – while the homosexual community is, at the same time, making demands that we go all out to find a cure for AIDS – a costly item for every taxpayer in America. People pooh-poohed Rick Santorum’s statement that if the Supreme Court dealt with Lawrence vs. Texas, that the next thing would be a demand for allowing homosexual marriage, saying, “It’ll never happen.” Six months later activists started demanding homosexual marriage. I have seen homosexuals demand the “right” to make a marriage with another person of the same sex. Now people are concerned that eventually polygamy will be approved, or any varying type of “marriage.” And the homosexuals say, “It’ll never happen.” We already have NAMBLA pushing for eliminating, or at the least, lowering, the age of consent.

A little sin begets a bigger sin, just as a little “white” lie demands another lie to back it up, and so on, ad infinitum. I have seen sexual abuse addiction. When the novelty of one type of abuse wears off, another one, worse than the previous, must be found by the abuser. The victim of the abuse may be virtually unable to get free of this abuse for whatever reason.

Our Founding Fathers said that our Republican form of government would work only for a moral and spiritual people. This is because moral and spiritual people tend to practice self-discipline. People point to slavery to deny this belief. But most people are unaware that slavery was one of the issues of the American Revolution as well as the Civil War. King George III refused to allow the colonies to make any laws curtailing slavery in any way. As soon as the Union was formed, 12 of the 13 states passed laws forbidding the importation of slaves. The fact that this was not always followed (blackmarket, etc.) does not negate its existence.

With the decay of morality and righteousness, more and more people are demanding the “right” to do anything they want. They accuse the “moral and righteous” people of trying to make a theocracy of our nation. I’m sure that our Founding Fathers would see reason to make more laws against immoral behaviour, and to tighten the ones we have, because we are no longer a moral and spirtual/religious/righteous nation. They never intended the degradation that is now occurring in our country. They told the people of America that the kind of government they had given us was “a Republic, if you can keep it.” We have not kept it.

Not only have we discarded self-discipline, we have even started to demand that our government “take care of us.” This involves the government taking money from the diligent and honest, and distributing it to the lazy and indolent. Oh, to be sure, there are some people who are poor not through their own fault, but such people used to be cared for by the “moral and religious.” Now, the government has usurped that position, and takes our money against our will, and determines who is “worthy” of receiving it. And we have even got to the point where many people, who have not been properly taught about our history, honestly believe it is truly the government’s job to take care of the needy.

I have, on a number of occasions, told of an incident that describes true freedom. Some of you old-timers like me may remember a ballet dancer named Edward Villella. I saw him interviewed once on television. The interviewer asked Villella if he wasn’t ever afraid of falling when he was performing. His answer went something like this: “No, I am never afraid of falling. I discipline myself and practice diligently so that when I get on the public stage, I am perfectly free (italics mine).” This response shows the relationship between self-discipline and freedom.