The Love of Liberty Versus the Hatred of Oppression, Part 2: Liberty Lovers

This is part 2 of a 5-part article.

Read Part 1 Here
Read Part 3 Here
Read Part 4 Here
Read Part 5 Here

Our freedom to choose, or our agency, permits that life can be (not is) a corrupting process, but implicit in that possibility is that life can also be an exalting process.

True lovers of freedom understand this and make their lives a never-ending, proactive quest to achieve the highest level of perfection possible, as opposed to simply reacting to each new form of external oppression that comes their way.

Lovers of freedom possess the maturity to not only consider what is seen, but what is not seen as well — in fact, they are far more concerned with what is not seen than what is seen.

For example, when the question of secession from a mother government arises, they do not consider the abuses of the government only, they also are aware of the dangers of separation and know when secession will cause more problems than it will solve.

When engaged in war, their sole thought is not to destroy the enemy, but also how to coexist with the enemy after the war is won.

They institute preventive policies before threats materialize.

Any time that they take significant action, the dominant question in their mind is how the particular policy in question will affect their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Those who cherish liberty understand that liberty may be found internally on a personal level in spite of any external abuses of power.

Although they fight external despotism when necessary, they understand that mere political/economic freedom is meaningless without internal freedom that flows from virtue and integrity — they seek personal manumission before political emancipation.

Sincere seekers of freedom use self-discipline and self-restraint as a means to the end of liberty; their concept of freedom is to be subject to true laws.

They discern that, as Viktor Frankl taught,

“Freedom threatens to degenerate into arbitrariness unless it is balanced by responsibleness.”

Theirs is a deliberate, balanced, and chosen freedom, not an accidental, arbitrary anarchy.

Their fight for liberty is a positive quest for honorable ideals, rather than a negation of dishonorable subjection.

Each new battle fought finds them at a higher level of freedom than before — they are not constantly surprised with negative consequences of errant actions.

Freedom lovers are the mature adults who understand that rights are meaningless and even dangerous without fulfilling their accompanying responsibilities.

They know that freedom is priceless; inestimable, and they teach their children and grandchildren to appreciate it and to safeguard it with their lives and their freedom lasts for several generations.

To them, freedom is not something to be taken for granted; it is something to strive for, to sweat and bleed for, to sacrifice for not only in the process of achievement, but also in the process of perpetuation.

When lovers of liberty use pragmatic methods, they understand them as necessary, but they never pursue pragmatism for the sake of pragmatism.

They merely recognize and concede that we are imperfect beings in an imperfect world, which necessitates a pragmatic approach to coexistence and progress.

However, they understand that any pragmatic theory, policy, or action must lead toward the ideal and not degenerate into chaos; idealism, is the end, pragmatism is the means to that end.

Lovers of liberty understand that one’s integrity must never be compromised in the struggle for freedom and that freedom is worthless and illusional if one becomes what they were fighting against in the battle.

They know that personal integrity is not worth sacrificing in the name of political freedom. They ask of means not only if they will work, but also if they are the proper form.

If and when they do choose to fight for freedom, the source of their motivation is love and not hatred — they fight fire not with fire, but with water.

They understand that, “The salvation of man is through love and in love,” to quote Viktor Frankl again.

And if they win the battle for freedom, they are the first to forgive their enemies, or at the very least they fight just as strongly for the rights of their previous tyrants as they do for their own.

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Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.