Liberty is a do-it-yourself project. It always has been.
You can't buy it from someone else. No one else can give it to you. The best anyone else can do is point you in its direction, but you have to be the one to grasp it and refuse to give it up.
The Declaration of Independence didn't create liberty. Your own declaration can, as long as you don't wimp out along the way. And it won't always be easy. Liberty is natural, but that doesn't mean it's without difficulties.
When you feel tempted to archate against someone else "for their own good", or because you disagree with them, or fear them or what they might do, you are in danger of chipping away at your own liberty. Or utterly destroying it.
Liberty is fragile and slippery.
Laws, as they are recognized today, are almost always liberty's mortal enemy- its polar opposite. It is nearly impossible to use the law against another person and hold on to your own liberty, undamaged and unstained.
Most people don't want to hear this disturbing news. They want to have their cake and to eat it, too.
One of my biggest, most ridiculous wishes is that I could write an essay that would flip a switch in the mind of anyone who reads it, giving them an instant understanding of, and unquenchable hunger for, liberty. But I can't do that. Better people than me have tried and failed.
It doesn't mean I will stop trying. My hunger for liberty won't let me. And I can't help but believe that if anyone else actually gets it, and understands what it means for their own future, and the future of their kids and grandkids, they would love it just as much as I do, and despise the plague of statism that infects the world. I can always dream.
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My subscriptions are down about $65 from a year ago. That may not sound like much, but when you live on the edge as I do, it's a lot. I desperately need to replace (or surpass) those subscriptions. A big "thank you!" to supporters of this blog. I probably couldn't keep doing this without you.
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