Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!

FREEDOM! FREEDOM! FREEDOM!

(The Nation’s Blistered Bottom)

“Freedom, Freedom, Freedom!” has been the historic mantra of economic imperialists – those who wish no restrictions on their ability to make money any way they can and at anyone else’s expense.  They claim to be opposed to Big Government.   By Big Government they don’t mean its size but its ability to pass regulations that stop economic imperialists from bilking the citizenry with their economic scheming. They really don’t care how big government is as long as it refrains from inhibiting Big Business from making Big Profit. In fact, the bigger the government spending the better because that means they can stick their beak in the money stream for more profit – especially military and national security funding which is overseen with minimal regard.  The general public does not seem to comprehend this even though historical data reveals that it is the Republican Party that always increases the national debt despite the fact that one of their proclaimed and adamant political plate-forms is to reduce government spending.

However, the issue of freedom in American history is much broader and more perverted of meaning than this definition by economic imperialists ensconced in the Republican Party. Historically, in America, the essence of democracy has been deemed individual freedom.  It has been framed as the right to pursue personal economic goals and, in the twentieth century, labeled The American Dream.  Essentially, it has been wrapped around the prerogatives of individualism.

But all of these assertions are false.  Individual freedom is not the essence of democracy.  It is an imperative but not the defining value.  The essence of democracy is the common good that is grounded in the common inherent worth and common rule of the people – of, by, and for.  In a democracy the common good is the boundary marker for all freedoms.  Individual freedom is dictated by what is best for the whole community.

While democracy maximizes individual freedom it also constrains the license of this freedom.  And license is any action or attitude that belittles the citizenry’s equality of worth or hinders the achievement of its common good.  License is any me first posture toward community.  Racism, sexism, economic imperialism, and the capitalization of the environment are only apparent examples of me first postures.  Anything that smacks of individualism is the face of me first.  And individualism is any form of despotism that asserts me before community –   irrespective of the democratic cloak it might wear. 

It is all of those politicians who have and continue to support Donald Trump in his outlandish despotic attempts to take over the nation’s democratic structures.  It is all of those insurrectionists who invaded the buildings of congress and sought to overthrow the election of Joe Biden to the presidency. It is all of those citizens who refuse to accept the results of the presidential election. It is the fake news media that supports all of the attempts to install despotism over democracy and does so in the name of free speech.  It is the combination of all these actions that denies the common good in favor of individual goals. 

Freedom is both important and necessary in democracy.  However, the common good is the stop sign that says: “Go no further!”  The common good is that which determines the limits of freedom whatever the issue might be.  This stop sign announces what is best for the community.  This is why the community is the ultimate value in a democracy because it is the final of, by, and for.

Until America wakes up to the real meaning of democracy and is able to discipline individual desire for the sake of the common good, the real freedom of common good support will remain in jeopardy and the false freedom of individualism will be hailed as democratic essence.  We are at a critical point in this contention between false individual freedom and democratic common good freedom just as we were at that moment that initiated the Civil War.  But the outcome will be even more decisive because it will determine whether or not the actual structures of American democracy will become the definitive structures of despotism.  We are very close to becoming what our forefathers rebelled against in order to create America.

That outcome will not be determined by this past election.  It will be determined by whether or not the vast majority of the citizenry finally accepts that the meaning and means of democracy is beyond their private goals – that it is about the grand rewards of contributing to and participating in the common good.  The next five years of congressional work and elections will reveal America’s destiny because these years will show us whether the citizenry wishes a democracy or a despotism.

It is the people, in their collective voting freedom, who decide both the nature of the common good and how it will be achieved.  It is the national community that will determine the destiny of democracy because it is of and by them. As Abraham Lincoln said so insightfully:

Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision.

If they decide to turn their back on the fire and

burn their bottoms, they will just have to

sit on their blisters.

The blisters are already here in abundance.  The issue is whether they will proliferate or diminish and to what extent they will inhibit or free the nation to sit down on their common good.

Hell is the truth seen too late. – Thomas Hobbs

Robert

Robert T. Latham

mythinglink.com

PS: Thank you for you invitations to join you on Face Book but it is a medium in which I do not participate.