Fettered Freedom

How strange now, looks the life he makes us lead; So free we seem, so fettered fast we are–Robert Browning

 Fondness it were for any being free, to covet fetters, though they golden be–Edmund Spenser

We, as Americans, have always prided ourselves on our freedom. But the truth is Americans have not been free, as I define the word, in many, many years. I am not talking about the government gradually stealing all of our rights from us and selling them back to us as privileges–such as having to pay to hunt or fish, or to practice the second amendment, needing permits to protest or gather, or even of the idea of taxation being theft–all of these things being true.

  What I am talking about here is the idea of being free to walk away from it all and to live your life free from interference. Freedom is more than being able to go to a ballgame on your day off or maybe going to a movie. Freedom as defined: “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” If you were to walk away from your job how long could you live on your own? Would you have to find another job to survive? If so you are not free, because you have a master, but it is not quite slavery either because you can change your master. I call this state of mankind “fettered freedom” and this is the freedom the vast majority of Americans live in today.

  But as I look around today I see we are on the verge of losing even this fettered freedom and I am shocked at how easy it has become and how willing the American people are willing to submit to authoritarianism. You have probably figured out that I am referring to COVID-19 and how easy it was for the states to basically shut down our lives, giving us the freedom only to buy food, water, and other essentials.

  Our lives have been upended by the combination of an invisible menace and a government which is always ready and willing to push the limits of power to see how far the American people will let them go. This of course is not the first time the government has used a crisis to take away our rights.

  Do I even need to mention the PATRIOT Act? But we also saw something after the Boston marathon bombing which had me worried at that time and that was the shelter in place order and the stories of police ripping people out of their homes and searching the people and their homes without warrants. All under the guise of security…

  Not only did the people accept this without question but they cheered the actions of the police state. The complacency of the people frightened me more than the actions of the police, or should I say just as much as the police, because this showed us the majority of Americans have grown soft and do not understand what freedom and the Constitution mean or stand for.

  If you go to the store today and as you see police outside  telling you whether or not you are free to enter the store yet, or if you see police inside telling you to stand back or to stop, or if the store you would like to go to is shuttered because the government told it to close, and as you see people walking around with fear and trembling longing for the government to protect them, ask yourself if this what it means to be free? I do not think so.

  Basically the government is letting people work and eat and this is about all, but the government is not even letting all people earn a living because the government has determined they are non-essential. How demeaning is that term? All jobs are essential to the people who have them, and all businesses are essential to the people who own them. These people did not lose their jobs or their businesses, they had them taken from them by the government. These people are only allowed to eat. However we know how totalitarian governments treat people who consume more than they produce…

  This, like all other crises, is a test run. A test by the government to see how far they can push the American people and frankly while I am not surprised at the government I am stunned by how many people are willing to take it without question. If these restrictions are eventually lifted (I am sure they will let Americans go back to work to be productive but socially will things ever be the same again?) and life returns somewhat to our normal state of fettered freedom, does anybody believe this will not become more and more routine, and for longer periods with even more restrictions, until we reach the point where we have lost everything and we actually long for the day when we at least had fettered freedom?

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium