It’s idiotic to strive for freedom when it isn’t really a goal to be achieved.

Sure, if you’re a slave, freedom is something you may thirst for. But if a slave is freed today, what is he tomorrow? Well, you could say he’s a free man and is now in a state of freedom. But at that moment his freedom likely just put him in immediate danger. Being free doesn’t guarantee a person’s survival. How will he eat? Where will he go? He is now starting from a point of nothing.

Being free gives him a choice. But more importantly and more accurately, it requires that he increase his responsibility. He must take control of his own life.

But, what comes first — Freedom or responsibility?

Where the chicken and egg debate might be an imponderable question, freedom and responsibility are not. The degree of real freedom is only equal to the degree of responsibility. Without responsibility, there can be no freedom.

The newly freed man might not be forced into the field to toil for the slavemaster, but he sure better get himself in the field and toil for himself if he wants to eat! If he wants to remain free, he better start taking responsibility for himself and perhaps those around him in a similar state.

Freedom isn’t an end goal. It isn’t a condition of; “Not having to work anymore, woo-whoo!”

Freedom is a state or condition that allows for self-determined choice, which means the free man is responsible for his own actions. And this immediately expands to being responsible for the survival of his family, etc.

So when we speak of freedom, we are really speaking of freedom to decide one’s own fate, fortune and happiness. This goes hand in hand with one’s education and one’s personal drive.

This is where Jefferson almost got it right: “…that all men are created equal.”  This is where communism not only gets it wrong but takes it to an absurd level of stupidity.  “Equality!!!”  “We are all equal!!”   No. We’re not all equal. Unfortunately or fortunately, we are not.

Any quick look around a town demonstrates a natural (and sometimes not so natural) inequality. Independence and obvious dependence exist in any society. Intelligence and stupidity are an unequal factor in people. The ability and courage to observe vs. those who are afraid to look are observed inequalities.

Add just three words to Jefferson’s sweeping declaration and it makes it a more workable datum: “under the law” – “that all men are equal under the law”.  What problems that would solve in our society if it were fully used!

The often heard saying, “Freedom isn’t Free” is another way of saying freedom won’t exist without responsibility.

If you want to be free, increase your responsibility for yourself, your family and friends, those you work with and where possible, for mankind as a whole. Where you see injustice it is incumbent to your own freedom to speak up. Where you see political crimes and injustice, it is your own freedom at stake which requires that you speak up.

THOSE WHO PREACH HATE AND INSITE ANGER AND RIOT ARE BEING IRRESPONSIBLE. They endanger everyone’s freedom. They may have a podium to speak from, but no one has to listen to mad men.

Those who perpetrate injustice in the name of justice are reducing the state of freedom for everyone.

Freedom isn’t an end goal. It’s a state or condition that allows for self-determined responsible action which improves the survival of all involved. Standing for freedom, for reason, for justice are acts of responsibility.

And never fail to recognize an act of responsibility in those around you. It’s worth knowing who your friends are.