Ideas of liberty, freedom, and government (or lack thereof):

All too often, these are seen as opposing principles, but that is not necessarily the case. A few thoughts about each:

In economic terms, we have freedom if we have equality of opportunity and NOT equality of outcome. And no matter that we have people that are uber-wealthy: today in those nations with at least some liberty, we find that 95-99% of the people have wealth that just a century ago was denied to the top 1% of societies.

As regards diplomacy, we think of the quote from Adolf Hitler: “When diplomacy ends, war begins.” Liberty requires that we be armed in order to be able to resolve issues by diplomacy and not through violence, as paradoxical as that seems. Peace with liberty is best served by being ready and prepared to defend ourselves violently.

Civility is much easier if a society is armed and has liberty and a respect for one another as individuals. But authority outside the family turns into tyranny even more quickly than in the family. Authority must be constrained by liberty if we are to enjoy the benefits of civilization. All liberty is civil in nature, even though we distinguish between personal and economic liberty.

Societal success is highly dependent on balancing tradition and progress. In both, there is good and evil: not in the traditions and progress themselves as much as how they are applied. Progress does not mean rejecting any and all traditions any more than tradition rejects any progress: a society needs a mixture of both to promote peace, prosperity and (in all things) liberty.

We shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free.