When I took classes in American history and political science, much time was devoted to discussing the maintenance of our freedom.
I learned that the balanced liberty of our country respects sound authority and is known as ordered liberty. This means that people in a free society do not become selfish or self-centered. Instead, they agree to maintain their individual freedom by recognizing an orderly way of life like the U.S. Constitution and the state constitutions stress as a major purpose.
My teachers emphasized the fact that true political freedom depends on justice and order, and on the restraints imposed by living with other people. Justice is the principle and the process by which each person is assured the things that belong to him/her, like life, liberty, and dignity.
Order is the principle and process by which the peace and decency of society are maintained.
Many persons have trouble understanding that to have freedom, we must give up some freedom. We exchange the life of a savage for that of a civilized person. A person who thinks only of his/her own freedom and does not worry about the freedom of others often finds other people to be “unreasonable.” No one can expect other people to yield all of their freedom so that one person can be spared the unpleasantness of yielding any of his. No one is entitled to more than his/her fair share of the possible general freedom.
Many of the things we wish to do call for action on the part of others. No one can be free unless other persons help him. Few people can live like Robinson Crusoe and be happy. The truly free person cannot exist alone.
Freedom is sometimes endangered by a person’s desire to use his/her liberty to control the freedom of others. A person, too, may take advantage of his/her rights to harm the common good.
For example, a person may make a speech in order to cause a riot. People, too, may be overzealous in protecting freedom such as during a time if crisis, like wartime, some persons will call for censorship of speech and press to safeguard our country. The apathy and indifference of the majority will allow the dangers to exist.
I learned that there is no better safeguard against such dangers than the alertness of a free people. Democratic education teaches people to live and let live as long as the basic rights of others are not violated.
In the past 100 years, many parts of the world have fallen into anarchy and then into tyranny. Even in Western Europe and parts of Central and South America, the rights of the individual are not as secure as they once were
It is possible that one cause of the decay of freedom is that people do not understand sources from which true freedom comes. They perhaps do not appreciate its religious, moral, and historical roots. Lack of respect for order, justice, and sound authority work to diminish the gift of freedom that has been handed down by generations of men and women.