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One issue that defenders of freedom must eventually confront is precisely how much of our liberty has been lost and what -- if anything different -- we should do to halt that constant erosion. In other words, what strategies and tactics are proper given our assessment of the threats we face to our independence.
That's a problem each person must evaluate for himself. The attitudes and perspectives one brings to this situation, however, may reveal more about ourselves and the depth of our commitment to be free than we might care to admit.
An example from the past national election will serve to illustrate what is at stake.
Some of those who work to fight against the encroachments of State power may operate from the best of intentions. Unfortunately, given their stances, they may, at times, actually do more harm than good in their endeavors.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has millions of members who want to continue to own and carry their rifles, shotguns, and handguns. This organization has often helped the cause of self-defense. It has also created conditions that diminish our ability to exercise our right to defend our lives and our property.
In their efforts to promote their agenda, the national officers of the NRA have decided to ignore those individuals who most consistently and fiercely struggle against the anti-gun nuts seeking to disarm us all. As a matter of policy, the NRA does not endorse nor directly mention -- in their mailings, magazines, or website -- any candidates for Congress, the Senate, or the Presidency from the Libertarian Party.
Discussing this position in a trio of phone calls with officers in Washington, D. C., I learned why, in many ways, the NRA is leading us down the wrong path. I criticized the NRA's endorsement of the national three-to-five day "instant check" that has already created a national database of firearm owners. I complained that they did not advocate repealing unjust laws but simply repeated their mantra of "enforcing current gun laws" without reference to the validity or justice of the tens-of-thousands of laws already polluting our legal environment. I also thought it very odd that the candidates they frequently endorsed were ones who truly were no friends of the Second Amendment. (For example, many of the incumbents here in Iowa the NRA endorsed for the last election with "A" ratings were viewed by Gun Owners of America [GOA] as deserving nothing better than "F's.")
I said I understood the politics of the situation and that one can rarely get what one wants or deserves in a single swoop. Yet I did not see that fact of life as inconsistent with at least advocating what is right and proper, i.e., with asking for total freedom but being willing to accept any interim steps that lead us in that direction. The actions of the NRA, however, tend to guarantee that we will find ourselves in a worse position rather than a better one by the time the political dust settles on any particular bill. They begin their negotiations at the point they expect to reach after dealing with their opponents. The result is a loss of liberty greater than they originally sought after their enemies finish whittling away at the initial "compromise."
They ask for what they think they can get rather than what they should get...and end up retreating step-by-step into back door tyranny.
By way of answer, one officer I argued with asked me, "You can still buy a gun, can't you? You can still go hunting, can't you? You can still buy ammunition, can't you?"
And there, in a nutshell, is the crux of the matter. The fundamental problem here goes beyond the dangers of compromising not just one's concrete position but one's principles. (See Ayn Rand's essay, "Doesn't Life Require Compromise?" in The Virtue of Selfishness for a more thorough discussion of this point). That is merely the result of a basic error in orientation.
The leaders of the NRA and too many other activist organizations have adopted the wrong standard for determining what they will do and what they will accept. Rather than appealing and adhering to the ideal as the standard for making their decisions and guiding their actions, they adopt the worst as their norm. It smacks of that old adage, "Half a loaf is better than none."
Settle. Be satisfied. Don't complain. Don't alienate your enemies. Don't be "extreme." Never offend.
"Things could be worse."
Yes, that is true. The political establishment and cultural propensities of the United States of America could be far more destructive than they are now or have been in the past. We could have 100% confiscation of our income rather than merely 50%. We could have complete censorship rather than the patchwork infringements we now "enjoy." We could have widespread persecutions of political opponents of the status quo rather than the selective targeting by the Internal Revenue Service and various law enforcement agencies that currently exists. We could be required to carry internal passports rather than the de facto national identification card (i.e., our Social "Security" number) we presently must offer in order to get a job, cash a check, board an airplane, get a driver's license, apply for a loan, or a thousand other daily activities we do.
In the view of the NRA officer, we could have national registration or outright bans on the possession of firearms everywhere in the nation rather than just in selected jurisdictions.
Yes, we all could be far worse off than we are today. As your mother may have told you, think of the "starving children in China" or "those people worse off than you" such as the blind and the disabled.
I ask: "So frigging what?"
A well-intentioned correspondent told me that I should be "grateful" that I can publish my opposition to statism and collectivism without expecting a knock at the door in the middle of the night.
He is literally correct. He is also essentially wrong.
If you were to accept and promote the attitudes of the NRA and the person who suggested that life isn't all that bad, you might very well be happy with your lot. You could comfort yourself with the knowledge that you can still go to work. You can still go on the occasional vacation and buy a new car every few years. You have plenty to eat and hundreds of cable channels to entertain you. You own your home...or at least are making payments on it. You can spend time with your family, your wife and children.
Yes, life is good. You can compliment yourself on your optimism.
Why, look at some of the rollbacks in government power. Airlines and some energy supplies have been "deregulated." (Well, regulations still exist...but not as many as before.) Serious discussion is heard regarding "privatizing" Social Security. (Well, you will still be forced to participate in the program...and only in government approved mutual funds...assuming any bill is actually passed. But they are talking about it.) The size of government as a percentage of the Gross National Product is shrinking. (Well, the nominal amount of money continues to increase every year...but the size of the increase is supposed to be less in the near future.)
Hmm.
Medicare is scheduled to expand with the addition of prescription drug coverage.
Spending on government-run propaganda, er, education balloons while federal control tightens.
Efforts to eliminate various Cabinet offices such as the Department of Education and Commerce are abandoned while boondoggles like AmeriCorps are expanded.
"Assault" weapons are banned in California while Congress and various state legislatures promise to close gun-show "loopholes" and to mandate gun-locks.
The War on Drugs grows in ferocity, shooting down missionaries in South America, while our government "protects" us from ourselves via asset forfeiture, no-knock raids, racial profiling, bulging prison populations of non-violent drug users, and banks monitoring our financial transactions.
The danger in "being thankful" for what you have is that you will all too frequently tend to forget all that you have lost. If you're happy with where you're at, you're unlikely to take the actions necessary to regain the freedom, the rights, and the property you have lost. The "best" that is possible to your life should be your guide, not the "worst."
Far better to seek the good than merely try to escape the bad.
Pushing in a positive direction is not "optimism." Being aware -- and indignant -- about what has been taken from you is not "pessimism."
What is required from each of us is realism.
To paraphrase Dylan Thomas, let us not go quietly into that long night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light of freedom. Stand up and shout resolutely for your rights. Demand your liberty with unyielding obstinance. Don't settle for earthly subsistence when you deserve the limitless stars.
Be tough, uncompromising, unbending, and intractable when it comes to defending your values. Don't concern yourself with offending those who would enslave you. They have earned your contempt, not your indulgence.
It's your responsibility. It's your decisions. It's your money.
It's your life.
Your life is all you have. It belongs to you. Hold on to it with all the fierceness of spirit you can muster while you battle for your complete freedom.
You deserve nothing less.
