Photo credit: Tim Lumley on VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND. What did Benjamin Franklin really say about the national seal bearing a wild turkey vs. a bald eagle?
Originally published January 2016 as part of the Five-Phrase Fridays series.
Five-plus phrases of things to celebrate about freedom of the press and free expression:
- revelation through openness: unfettered expression of facts, opinions and impressions, making possible the discovery of truths
- diverse, idea-rich culture and personal responsibility instead of sacred cows and “safe” spaces for absolutely everything: Such riches flow out of sources ranging from irreverent comics to wise, reasonable academicians and beyond.
- constraint and dissent against bureaucracy and corruption: government transparency, accountability, restraint of power; courageous whistle blowers; the repeal of bad and excess laws
- greater personal safety, freedom, and fairness–and less fear: no to a military-style police state, no to federal intimidation, no to economic imprisonment, no to political entitlement, no to terror, no to executive power grabbing, no to detention without charges or trial, no to knee-jerk litigation, no to more prohibition (yes, upholding the Constitution in general is essential to numbers 3 and 4)
- lighten up, get real and get out of your own way: uncork childhood and let them breathe, laugh at ourselves, leave the Internet unregulated, and say “yes” to risk, to play, to innovation, to experiments in arts and sciences–to better life
Roosevelt was right: Our greatest enemy is our own fear. And guilt is a close second.
Most of us theoretically want the foundation of the five conditions above; we just advocate different ways of getting there. For my part, I say:
Self-control is a skill worth cultivating alongside rational and critical thinking.
Let not your pulsing heart scream silently in ready offense, righteous indignation, outrage, despair, doom, panic, self-hatred, or vengeance. And if you can’t help it, delay the impulse to give your heart voice until after it consults your mind (or a neighbor’s if you are out of yours).
To kick our addictions to dread and catastrophe, and curb our bad habit of trying to change others, if we really want to make life better, first we have to change our own hearts and minds. Adaptation propels us beyond mere survival into thriving.
You find what you look for, so look for the good in others. You cultivate what you rave about, so, if you must rave, rave about the good you have found. Replace the need to spread anger and fear with an addiction to the highs of good news and hope.
Oppression rules when we approach life as an error to correct, as a problem to solve, as something broken to be fixed. Hypocrisy and idiocy reign when we engage with and operate from assumptions of imaginary or exaggerated woes and wars within society, when we fail to think through not just the presence of possible ills but the absence of them, the shedding of them from generations past.
Poor decision making ensues when we ignore context and the relative levels of good and bad, even from our own personal experiences. The bigger picture reveals a greater balance, a stronger evening out, than we often assume because, in mass media, crisis and disaster sell and are remembered better than triumph and success.
Out of such a doomsaying atmosphere spring useless, tyrannical communism; insidious, oppressive fascism; and volatile religious fanaticism–and their attendant violences. Feel free to despair at that point, but then quickly dust yourself off to fight the now-real war.
Either way, no one is getting out of here alive, so we might as well make it the best life we can.
Let there be creativity and innovation on earth, the rebirth of possibility, and let it all begin . . . with freedom. Only under this necessary first condition can we hope for the powers of truth, love, integrity, respect, and trust in ourselves and each other to foster widespread, lasting peace and prosperity. Only under liberty can civilization pursue its gradual, natural course of improvement.
More thoughts on freedom:
Philosofishal by Carrie Tangenberg 