1, 2, 3, Freedom Friday Newsletter on tyranny, liberty, & human flourishing

Wisdom from the past to help you navigate the present. 

One Question To Consider

I. If freedom is dear, how must I live?

Two From History 

I. Tyranny brings ignorance and brutality along with it. It degrades men from their just rank into the class of brutes. It dampens their spirits, it suppresses arts. It extinguishes every spark of noble ardor and generosity in the breasts of those who are enslaved by it. It makes naturally strong and great minds feeble and little, and triumphs over the ruins of virtue and humanity. For which reason it becomes every friend to truth and mankind, every lover of God and the Christian religion, to bear a part in opposing this hateful monster. 

- Jonathon Mayhew, Sermon. 1750

II. “All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all” – the principles that clears the path for all – gives hope to all - and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.” 

- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on the Constitution and Union. January 1861

Three From Me

I. Tyranny can be imposed from the top down, or the bottom up. It can be felt by the many due to the few, or the few due to the many, and like a tornado, leaves a path of destruction in its wake.

II. More freedom and human flourishing is the answer we seek. The problem is that those who can, can’t do the work for those who won’t.

III. Freedom without duty leaves men who act like children, or worse, bullies. 

Freedom requires vigilance and the best vigilance is learned from the past.