"Give me liberty or give me death!" This is what Virginia son Patrick Henry yelled when confronted with a government run amok, knowing as he did that a life of slavery is not worth living. His words, however, no longer appeal to the society he helped create. The modern cry of moral outrage is inverted and goes something like this: "Take my liberty, but give me life!"
This single phrase summarizes America's domestic and foreign policy today. Americans now clamor for government to perpetrate every imaginable wrong and indignity to (supposedly) preserve life, whether it's another undeclared war to kill "terrorists" and every man, woman, and child nearby; submitting to invasive and embarrassing searches without probable cause to justify them; an "entitlement" program of forced wealth transfer such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security that has assumed the idolatrous status of a golden calf; bailing out politically-connected plutocrats or debasing the currency to stave off dreaded economic turmoil; showering discretionary funds on virtually every scientific, pedagogical, or artistic activity in order to guarantee that it produces politically-desired results; rolling out the red carpet to illegal invaders because they "do the work Americans won't do"; or begging federal courts to assert control over state and local matters to ensure that no community may displease an obstreperous contingent (often not even within the community itself).
This modern cry of moral outrage is, at bottom, cowardice. It is the mark of a people terrified of liberty and all the dangers it might bring. For such cowardly people, liberty is a luxury and must take a back seat to safety and prosperity. And as I've said before, the bitter irony is that by surrendering in this manner, the coward's worst nightmares will now come true. He yearned for life and prosperity at any cost, but now he must surrender them along with his soul.
This single phrase summarizes America's domestic and foreign policy today. Americans now clamor for government to perpetrate every imaginable wrong and indignity to (supposedly) preserve life, whether it's another undeclared war to kill "terrorists" and every man, woman, and child nearby; submitting to invasive and embarrassing searches without probable cause to justify them; an "entitlement" program of forced wealth transfer such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security that has assumed the idolatrous status of a golden calf; bailing out politically-connected plutocrats or debasing the currency to stave off dreaded economic turmoil; showering discretionary funds on virtually every scientific, pedagogical, or artistic activity in order to guarantee that it produces politically-desired results; rolling out the red carpet to illegal invaders because they "do the work Americans won't do"; or begging federal courts to assert control over state and local matters to ensure that no community may displease an obstreperous contingent (often not even within the community itself).
This modern cry of moral outrage is, at bottom, cowardice. It is the mark of a people terrified of liberty and all the dangers it might bring. For such cowardly people, liberty is a luxury and must take a back seat to safety and prosperity. And as I've said before, the bitter irony is that by surrendering in this manner, the coward's worst nightmares will now come true. He yearned for life and prosperity at any cost, but now he must surrender them along with his soul.
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