In the season of hope and promises of a greater future, Ronald Reagan’s famous quote has been at the top of mind: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” This has always struck a negative tone within me; a dire warning to fight for liberty against the evils that would use power against us. But what if during this holiday season we examined the more positive phrase: Freedom is never more than one generation away from being more fully realized? What conditions would we need to create so we could one day tell our grandchildren about the oppressions we had to suffer to create the freedom they now enjoy?
As with most aspects of our political life nowadays, it is going to start with the individual and our abandonment of the Marxist agenda of Progressivism. As long as individuals are willing to abdicate their responsibilities to experts and bureaucrats, we will never realize the height of freedom. We must free ourselves from the shackles of security and embrace the scary future of a life lived through personal responsibility. It is easy to blame experts for being wrong but there is much more freedom in accepting the fact that you as an individual were wrong and deciding to grow from that mistake. Lately we have too often seen what should be apolitical advice from experts, swayed by a political process. Now experts are making decisions based on politics, not facts and science. When science is corrupted by politics and used as a cudgel against those who disagree, we must realize that the utopian progressive model has failed. As long as we live as societal victims, we will never leave an inheritance of a freer country. But how do we fully reach the height of enlightened individual lives?
Virtue is a word bandied about without realizing how truly powerful virtues are. Many people debate ethics and discuss morality. We talk about theoretical trains and how to save lives. But reason and morals do not define a life. Virtues are the most critical social source of freedom because they are morals in action. They are our behaviors, actions taken as an individual to influence society. Virtues are demonstrated and learned. The critical civic virtues of self-restraint, self-assertion, and self-reliance are antithetical to the entire ideology of Progressivism and are necessary components of a free society. A virtuous citizen is an active citizen, present in society and actively pushing society towards a higher ideal. An active citizen does not tolerate immoral behavior and instead upholds justice. A virtuous citizen is not content merely existing within society but instead attempts to educate those around them through reasoned debate and discussion.
Civic education is paramount if we want to leave a legacy of a society brimming with Liberty. At the very least it saves time when debating policy if we do not have to re-educate our colleague on the true purpose of a constitutional republic, the true purpose of the second amendment or the intent of the electoral college. But more importantly, it is remembrance of history and ensuring we learn from the tragedies and triumphs of prior generations. When we embrace the idea that human nature does not change and we can learn from our ancestors, we give ourselves such an advantage in our political life. We can learn from the empires of old just as much as we can learn from the failures of equality lived out through Venezuela. Civic education is also of vital importance to the Republic we have inherited. We have institutions that were specifically designed for an intentional purpose and are ill suited to the progressive bureaucratic state. But without the knowledge of why they were designed that way, we are unable to understand how to properly use them. We rely on the courts to create legislation instead of rendering justice. We require the executive branch to provide justice instead of checking the power of the other branches. We the people have forgotten our necessary and proper role of guarding the guardians of our government. We have failed our current generation but how quickly could the next generation soar past us and install a proper government if we were to teach them what that government should look like and why.
I have great hopes for my children and the world they will live in. I hope to raise up active and engaged citizens who will fight against tyranny, whether it is tyranny of the individual or the tyranny of the majority. I have great hopes that they will influence their peers, neighbors and friends and pass along the wonderful benefits of freedom. But my education will not cease with just my children, and neither should yours. We may be a generation away from tyranny, but our history shows that one generation can have a profound and deep impact on the trajectory of our great country. Let us start the new year with a renewed hope for our country and set ourselves to the great, difficult, and necessary task of living virtuous lives in pursuit of a freer freedom.
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