{"id":267,"date":"2011-10-28T15:32:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T19:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=267"},"modified":"2011-10-28T15:32:27","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T19:32:27","slug":"liberty-from-an-intergalactic-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/10\/liberty-from-an-intergalactic-perspective.html","title":{"rendered":"Liberty from an Intergalactic Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some readers of this column may very well remember the old \u201870\u2019s sitcom, Mork and Mindy.\u00a0 <\/em>Mork, played by Robin Williams, was an alien from the planet \u201cOrk\u201d who had been deployed to Earth in order to discover more about the ways of its inhabitants.\u00a0 At the end of each week\u2019s episode, audiences would watch as Mork relayed his findings to \u201cOrson,\u201d his superior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, imagine if a Mork-like being were to visit our planet for the sake of acquiring knowledge regardingAmerica\u2019s politics.\u00a0 What would he discover?<\/p>\n

Well, within minutes of his spacecraft landing he would determine that those beings who call themselves \u201cAmericans\u201d have something bordering on an obsession with what they call \u201cliberty.\u201d\u00a0 At virtually every turn, it is impossible to go for long without hearing the language of \u201cliberty\u201d and \u201cfreedom\u201d spring from their lips. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Being the inquisitive sort that he is, it is only natural that this alien should want to probe more deeply into the character of this \u201cliberty.\u201d\u00a0 So he does.\u00a0 Our sociologist from another planet, so as to keep himself from becoming conspicuous, would first try to discern its meaning by listening carefully to the inflection and intonations of the voices of those speaking of liberty.\u00a0 In doing so, he would become hopeful that he would before long get to the bottom of it all, for what he would detect is that talk of liberty is almost invariably accompanied by excitement and enthusiasm\u2014as sure a sign as any that this \u201cliberty\u201d is something to which these Americans attach no small measure of importance.\u00a0 Liberty, that is, isn\u2019t just a <\/em>good, as far as the Americans are concerned; it is quite possibly the greatest of all goods. <\/em><\/p>\n

Our alien would now really <\/em>be curious to find out more about liberty.\u00a0 And though he would hate to admit it to himself, he would find the impulse to jettison his disinterestedness by interjecting himself into his study increasingly difficult to resist.\u00a0 But no, his self-discipline would prevail and he would continue with his inquiry.<\/p>\n

In his quest to find out what it is that makes liberty the greatest of all goods, our alien investigator might resolve to interrogate its apparent devotees.\u00a0 What exactly is <\/em>liberty? he would ask them.\u00a0 And why wouldn\u2019t he?\u00a0 This is such a straightforward question.\u00a0 Surely, he would assume, it invites a comparably straightforward answer.<\/p>\n

Within no time, though, to his chagrin, he would discover that for all of the assuredness with which these Americans proclaim the blessings of their liberty, they couldn\u2019t come remotely close to achieving a consensus as to what liberty is.\u00a0 While any given person would waste no time in articulating his <\/em>definition of liberty, in vain would our alien search for an account of liberty that was to everyone\u2019s<\/em> satisfaction. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In fact, among a relatively small group of randomly selected Americans, distinct and even conflicting statements of liberty would emerge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lesser spirits would have been tempted at this juncture to throw in the towel.\u00a0 A less facile inquirer would have seized upon this seemingly bizarre phenomenon as compelling evidence for the futility of the search for the meaning of liberty.\u00a0 But our alien, being made of steelier stuff than this, would resolve to change tactics.\u00a0 Rather than approach Americans at random, he would instead devote his attention to only those Americans who sounded most enamored with liberty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his studies, our alien would realize that American politics is, for the most part, a perpetual power contest between two major organizations or \u201cparties,\u201d as Americans call them. \u00a0Though the members of both parties tirelessly declare their love for liberty, the members of what is referred to as \u201cthe Democratic <\/em>Party\u201d have a predilection to supplement their invocations of liberty with similarly impassioned allusions to something they\u2019ve labeled \u201cequality.\u201d\u00a0 In contrast, those who belong to what is called \u201cthe Republican <\/em>Party\u201d speak almost exclusively of liberty.\u00a0 Thus, our alien would reason, those who speak most confidently and consistently of liberty are those who are likely to know best as to what it entails.\u00a0 So, it is to these creatures called \u201cRepublicans\u201d that he would gravitate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initially, this observer of American politics couldn\u2019t help but to feel encouraged by his decision to narrow his focus.\u00a0 Finally, it would appear, he is getting somewhere as to determining the nature of this ever elusive thing called \u201cliberty.\u201d\u00a0 Republicans, though far from being able to supply him with the degree of precision for which he longed, would nevertheless be able to provide him with some<\/em> idea as to which direction he should turn in furthering his analysis of liberty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Liberty, he would find out, requires what is called \u201climited government.\u201d\u00a0 What this implies is that neither the authority to rule nor the power by which authority rules can be concentrated in few hands.\u00a0 Liberty, then, is inseparable\u2014indeed, indistinguishable\u2014from an affirmation of \u201cindividuality.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>It is individual beings, \u201ccitizens,\u201d who should be, well, at liberty <\/em>to pursue their own <\/em>purposes; liberty, that is, forbids that individuals should be compelled <\/em>or coerced <\/em>to pursue the purposes of others.\u00a0 This is what our alien would discover as the concept of liberty, through slow and gradual steps, began to emerge from the darkness of ambiguity to assume some measure of distinctness.<\/p>\n

But no sooner than his hopes would begin to rise than they would be dashed.\u00a0 Once he achieved familiarity with the concept of \u201cgovernment,\u201d on the one hand, and that of \u201cthe individual\u201d or \u201cthe citizen,\u201d on the other, it would take our alien no time to recognize why the liberty <\/em>of the individual presupposes or entails a diminution in the size and scope of his government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or so our alien would think.<\/p>\n

Upon observing the conduct of those called \u201cRepublicans,\u201d including and especially their conduct throughout what they refer to as their \u201cpresidential primary race,\u201d he would observe a glaring incongruence between what he had heard them say at some times and places and their utterances at other times and places.<\/p>\n

Just when he would think that he had taken hold of the crux of liberty, he would become convinced that it had once again eluded his grasp.\u00a0 After all, the very same people upon whom our alien researcher had chosen to set his sights, those Republicans who indefatigably sang hosannas to \u201cliberty,\u201d \u201climited government,\u201d and \u201cindividualism,\u201d he would witness falling all over themselves giving praise to \u201cleaders\u201d and prospective party \u201cleaders\u201d who were busy trying to outdo one another via their promises <\/em>to actually expand <\/em>government.\u00a0 Of course, he wouldn\u2019t hear anyone ever explicitly <\/em>make any such promises; but by now, our alien would know his subject well enough to know that the positions of the Republican presidential candidates on the issues beckoned for a consolidation <\/em>of authority and power\u2014not <\/em>its dispersal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those individuals who aspired to become the titular head of the party of \u201cliberty\u201d were almost unanimous in their support of their nation\u2019s central bank, what the Americans referred to as \u201cthe Federal Reserve.\u201d\u00a0 Insofar as the Federal Reserve places a virtually unlimited amount of power to manipulate the nation\u2019s currency in just a few hands, our alien would have to judge it to be positively inimical to liberty\u2014if, that is, liberty is what he initially suspected it to be.<\/p>\n

The Republican presidential contenders were almost unanimous as well in their support of waging an intrinsically interminable war\u2014what they characterized as \u201cthe War on Terror.\u201d\u00a0 Alternatively, they spoke of this enterprise in more euphemistic terms, as a \u201cFreedom Agenda.\u201d\u00a0 Either way, our alien would discern the apparent contradiction in simultaneously affirming \u201climited government\u201d and <\/em>endless war, for the latter requires the expansion <\/em>and strengthening <\/em>of government and\u2014again, assuming that his first glimpse of \u201cliberty\u201d was accurate\u2014a corresponding diminution of liberty.<\/p>\n

Domestically, the Republican presidential candidates argue for \u201cprivatizing\u201d this or that program, presumably for the sake of maximizing liberty.\u00a0 Yet such \u201cprivatization\u201d is still subject to government oversight, for one, and, secondly, it is a supplement <\/em>to and not a substitute <\/em>for the government programs that already exist and that will continue to be financed by taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Granted, there was one <\/em>self-identified Republican presidential contender who always <\/em>spoke consistently with what our alien had expected to hear given his first impressions of liberty.\u00a0 This candidate passionately opposed growing the government for the sake of prosecuting wars with other lands.\u00a0 He called for an end toAmerica\u2019s \u201cWelfare State\u201d and its central bank.\u00a0 But since this Republican was ignored, ridiculed, mocked, and even demonized by his fellow partisans\u2014just those Americans who he supposed knew best about liberty\u2014the alien would have to judge, even if only provisionally, that they were on to something.\u00a0 Still, he was at a complete lost to determine what that was.\u00a0 So, by this juncture, he would have concluded that this \u201cliberty\u201d thing promised to forever escape his understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As this exhausted explorer from another world sailed out of our orbit, never to look to Earth again, he would be consumed with both disappointment and pity.\u00a0 He would be disappointed not just by the fact that he had to abort his mission before he could determine the nature of liberty, but by the fact that this phenomenon was more <\/em>of a mystery to him now <\/em>than before he launched his operation.\u00a0 He would as well be filled with pity for Americans, particularly Republicans, for while humility would caution him against equating his <\/em>ignorance of liberty with their <\/em>alleged ignorance of the same, it would be hard for him not think that these poor people knew not of what they spoke.\u00a0 And as long as this suspicion gnawed at him, he couldn\u2019t help to think that the hour was rapidly approaching when these folks would find themselves in far more dire straights than those in which they currently dwelled.\u00a0 After all, the one person who sounded the most sensible they derided as a \u201cnut.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some readers of this column may very well remember the old \u201870\u2019s sitcom, Mork and Mindy.\u00a0 Mork, played by Robin Williams, was an alien from the planet \u201cOrk\u201d who had been deployed to Earth in order to discover more about the ways of its inhabitants.\u00a0 At the end of each week\u2019s episode, audiences would watch…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLiberty from an Intergalactic Perspective<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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