Life is important. Without it we won’t get much done on this earth. As someone who believes that life is the gift from God, I must insist that my government treat life as the preeminent entitlement. After all every other entitlement conceived by the fertile minds of misguided men assumes that one must be alive to “enjoy” the benefits of government “goodness”…. which means that government forcibly takes from some people to redistribute to others. Life is different, however because the government need not rob life from one person to ensure the life of another. All that government must do is to acknowledge life, to honor it and to protect it. Aside from those three elements, the best thing that government can do to enrich our lives is to stay out of the way and allow us to live as we see fit.
Life without liberty or freedom becomes mere existence…a constant daily grind to survive and avoid the pain that accompanies the shackles of tyranny. To live life without liberty is similar to one who is trapped in a hospital while connected to a ventilator. The body is alive, but the spirit may be catatonic….or immobile. Living without laughter, loving or liberty is a cold proposition, and when one’s spirit is prevented from soaring and savoring the array of life that liberty offers, one turns cold and unresponsive. The loss of liberty deadens the soul, thus we can anecdotally conclude that our souls, our humanity can best be developed when we are free. If we are enslaved whether physically, emotionally or metaphorically, we lose our capacity to fully develop our potential. Without liberty we cannot pursue our dreams and goals. Without life and liberty, pursuit is fruitless.
Pursuing one’s potential can be an exhilarating endeavor. In some respects chasing a goal of any type can get one’s juices flowing. That is why competition is so highly valued, and competitive contests draw large audiences. When the rules are rigged, the competition loses its glamour. When the deck is stacked, the competitors become discouraged. The pursuit of happiness or fulfillment as our ancestors would define it is a natural inclination, but if the government or any other overbearing entity impedes or prevents one’s quest, the joy of the pursuit is dissipated. Following dreams and chasing ideas are natural functions of a free people. If individuals are denied their innate desire to achieve, their creative energies are sapped. Their inherent competitive instincts become muted, and their attempts to achieve become feeble and ineffectual. Government control of the individual’s yearning to build, to improve or to advance the human condition leads to a half-hearted, half-measured effort because the rules harm the competitor.
Freedom to live. Freedom to learn. Freedom to yearn and freedom to grow are not simple mindless statements. They reflect the very essence of who we are. I can recall when the Soviet Union was at its apex, and the people appeared to move around without protest and unresponsive to the abominations they were forced to endure. I could not fathom why nearly an entire nation would be so cowed and so compliant. Today I understand because after the Berlin Wall was dismantled only a small percentage of the Soviet citizens grasped their freedom with vigor and joy. For most of them, their reliance on the apparatus of the state had replaced their individuality. Their potential to enjoy the blessings of liberty had atrophied under the harsh direction of the government. They had lost their zest for the pursuit of happiness because their individual liberties were but distant memories and their lives were in the hands of their government.
Whereas the government should be morally obligated to protect and defend the lives of its citizens, the Soviet Communists insisted that individual lives be submerged for the good of the collective state. When the state is the dominant entity in the relationship with its constituents, the people’s spirit suffers and the state is weakened. When the individual life and the individual’s freedom are central to the existence of the state, the nation will flourish, the people will prosper and the pursuit of individual happiness will shower everyone in the country with blessings and bounty. When the human spirit, embedded with the spark from God, is allowed to shine, the sum of the parts (the people) is always greater than the whole (the country). Why is this so? Because as the nation reaps the benefits of a creative energetic free citizenry, others will enhance and advance the benefits even further. Liberty when left alone has no limits. Life when lived in liberty has no barriers. To truly live life as our Creator intended is to enjoy the fruits of liberty while pursuing our individual fulfillment. For any government or other entity to deny their people the opportunity to thrive is a crime against Nature and Nature’s Author.
Comment: cearlwriting@hotmail.com
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