Happy Fourth of July, Woodland! It's the day we celebrate the Declaration of Independence: the document asserting our independence from the British Empire and our desire to govern ourselves.
The Declaration begins with this profound and beautiful sentence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Freedom can be a beautiful thing. The absence of coercion or restraint on our choices and actions is something all human beings inherently desire and is necessary for human flourishing. But while a desire to be free from despotic control is a good thing, it can be easy to confuse this with a desire to be free from any control whatsoever—to be able to do whatever we please whenever we want, whatever the effects might be on the people and world around us.
But a society with total freedom: where anyone could do anything they wanted at any time with no repercussions, would be a brutal place no one actually wants to live in. Sure, take whatever you want. Drive however you like. If someone bothers you, shoot them. You are free to do whatever you like!
As the old adage goes, the freedom to swing my fist ends where your nose begins. If we are only concerned about the freedom to swing our own fist and not concerned with the responsibility of not hitting another's nose, we are not mature enough for freedom.
The freedom to drive a car comes with the responsibility to follow the rules of the road. If we don't cooperate and limit our freedoms according to the rules that allow us to coexist, we die.
Confusing a healthy desire for freedom and independence with a desire to be free from any control or responsibility is not a virtue, but rather a serious individual and societal danger.
If we are only concerned about our own rights and freedoms and not the rights and freedoms of our neighbors, we aren't interested in a free society, we are interested in a dictatorship where we get to be the dictators. Freedom is only freedom if it is freedom for all.
As Jefferson so eloquently put it in the Declaration, all people are equal, and all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If we think other people are treading on us when we are asked to respect other people's freedoms and live in ways that allow other people to pursue happiness, we have turned the virtue of freedom into the vice of selfish disregard. Confusing a desire for freedom from control with a desire for freedom from responsibility for our actions is the height of foolishness. We ought not to talk about freedom without talking about responsibility to our communities. We ought not to talk about freedom without talking about self control.
It can be easy to forget that when we declared our independence from Britain, we did not declare our independence from one another. Independence, like freedom, is a virtue that must be held in tension with the debt we owe one another. No person is an island. We deeply need one another on so many levels: from being able to enjoy things like clean water, transportation, food, and entertainment, to the intimate levels of sharing our lives, raising children, and working together to create things.
Freedom without responsibility or self-control is a dangerous evil. Independence without a relationship is loneliness. The only kind of freedom worth desiring or celebrating is the kind of freedom exercised with self-control and responsibility to one another, our communities, and our planet. The only independence worth having is the kind that sees how profoundly we are connected and how much we need one another.
As any parent has experienced, toddlers very much want their independence and freedom. So do teenagers. In both cases, they have some things to learn that will make their independence possible. Toddlers need to learn how to control their muscles. How to balance and take steps. How to watch for danger and stay out of the roads. Teenagers have to learn wisdom and judgment - how to take into account the future consequences of their actions.
As we mature, we have opportunities to develop self-control. Paradoxically, the more self-control we have, the more freedom we have in the world. Self-control gives us more capacity, more options, and more chances to get what we want, go where we want to go and be who we want to be.
If we are wise, we will talk about our responsibility when we talk about our freedom. We are not free from others. We are free for others. We get to make our own choices, but only in the context of human beings who are intricately and deeply connected to the people around us - to the planet itself.
As Paul put it (Galatians 5:13-14) "For you have been called to freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use your freedom as an opportunity for selfishness, but rather to serve one another in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in this one command: love your neighbor as yourself."
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