Over the past couple of months, I’ve begun to realize something — not everyone wants real liberty, they want tyranny.
In the United States, we’ve been brought up (well, some of us) to believe that the most important thing that America offers is liberty. We’re taught of Patrick Henry and his impassioned cry, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” We’re reminded by our national anthem and our history that brave men and women have given their lives to preserve liberty. It’s the reason we celebrate Independence Day on the 4th of July, is it not? We’re celebrating liberty, and all that America stands for. And we’re led to believe that all Americans feel the same way; that we’d rather die than give up our liberty.
I’ve written multiple posts on what liberty is, how liberty does not exist without law, and how real liberty is not license. Rather, it is responsibility over one’s individual choices. So, I’m not going to go over all of that again. I’m simply recognizing, publicly, that there are many in the United States and the world who do not truly want liberty. They want license, not liberty.
As the coronavirus age continues to drag on despite many protesting, rioting, and marching about various civil rights issues, I’ve begun to realize that many people want the regulations the government has been more than happy to hand out over the past few months.
In other words, people want government to tell them what to do. They want government to tell them to wear a mask. They want government to tell them how to run their business. They want government to tell them how hot to cook their steak or what temperature to set their air conditioning on in their house. And they want government to tell everyone else how to do those things as well.
This is not liberty. It’s control. And those on the left and on the right who want government to have this kind of control almost feel a sense of control in it themselves. They can control those they disagree with through government. Government is doing them a service by forcing people to wear masks, or dictating which private companies can open and which cannot open.
This is where the truth really enters. As long as people don’t have to be responsible for their own actions, these liberty-hating individuals don’t mind what government controls. You see, as I’ve discussed before, true liberty requires responsibility. We must be responsible for our own actions to be truly free. If we mess up, we and we alone reap the consequences. But if we succeed, we and we alone reap the rewards.
Not everyone wants to live in this mindset. And because they don’t want to live in this mindset, they don’t want anyone else to live in this mindset either. Why? Because then those who do exercise personal responsibility and succeed have something that those who do not exercise personal responsibility, and therefore do not succeed, don’t have — the reward of hard work.
The irony, of course, is that these very people who want more government regulation and control — who see government as the solution to all of life’s problems — will scream and yell at government if government dares to inhibit their license.
Now this is key. Liberty-haters really don’t want liberty; they want license (i.e. tyranny). They want the ability to do whatever they want without consequence, which means without responsibility. If they have no responsibility, they won’t suffer the consequences of doing whatever they want. They want to loot and riot with no repercussions, and if they get sick with the coronavirus, they can blame government.
They want to be whatever sexual orientation they make up, be sexually attracted to any age, have children with ten different women, never commit to a job and work hard at it, be handed all of their grades in college — and the list doesn’t stop here — without ever acknowledging or accepting any consequences for their actions.
My friends, license is not worth dying for; license is tyranny in disguise. License leads to chaos and chaos leads to tyranny. These liberty-hating individuals may second guess their hate of real liberty once they are under the grips of tyranny and have no license anymore, but by then it’ll be too late.
I’ve been pondering the fact that not everyone in America really wants liberty. And I think the fact that half of America doesn’t want real liberty is the root of all our problems.
We have two groups of very different people vying for control of the same country. No wonder those on the left want the flag removed, American history re-written or destroyed, and all quintessentially American virtues thrown out and replaced. They don’t want to live in America because America is synonymous with liberty. And since they don’t want liberty, they must change the very nature and core of what America is.
Really, what they want is Russia or China, but with the benefits and luxury that liberty has given the United States. They want to turn this country into something else while naively believing that when they do, all of their license will still remain. They can still have their iPhones and AirPods while complaining to the media about being oppressed.
We’re truly so spoiled in America. We have the luxury to gripe about topics like what bathroom a transgender person is supposed to use, when in many countries such an issue never even enters people’s minds. Why? How could it when they are trying to figure out where to get their next meal, or how to avoid being raped by their family members, or where to find a place to live?
We have the luxury we have in America because of real liberty; because of individuals taking individual responsibility over their actions. Not because of license. License is what has led to tyranny. Look at the Roman Empire if you need any historical context.
So, the half of our country that just doesn’t want to live in America without government control and are too lazy and selfish to leave need to be exposed for what they are. They need to face the fact that they’re not fighting for liberty, they’re fighting for tyranny. Because if they don’t, and they succeed in changing this country into something else, there will be nowhere left on earth to turn.
Friends, America is it. America is the last bastion of real liberty left. And yes, that is worth fighting for.
This article has been edited. It originally appeared on The Liberty Belle and is used by permission.
Christin McMasters is a South Carolinian now residing in North Carolina and has a Ph.D. in political science. She is a budding blogger and political science instructor, and her passion is politics.
Using her keyboard as her weapon of choice, Christin imparts some of her excitement, passion and knowledge about American government on her website, TheLibertyBelleNC.com.
Follow Christin on Facebook TheLibertyBelleNC and Twitter @LibertyBelleNC.
