The liberty I mean is social freedom. It is that state of things in which liberty is secured by the equality of restraint. A constitution of things in which the liberty of no one man, and no body of men, and no number of men, can find means to trespass on the liberty of any person, or any description of persons, in the society. This kind of liberty is, indeed, but another name for justice.
– Edmund Burke
Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant’s truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails. – Henry David Thoreau from Higher Laws, Walden Pond
God is not merely interested in the freedom of brown men, yellow men, red men and black men. He is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
– Revelation 12:11
History is an accounting of the use of power through time and place. How one set of peoples, large or small as they may be with some set of ideas and values, overcame or were overcome by another set of peoples with their own different ideas and values. As we look over time we see civilizations, ideas, and power structures rise and fall. The ebb and flow of man living out his virtue in whatever ways he can.
Today is a day like every other day that mankind has ever marked, and just as a Byzantine or a Roman or an Egyptian lived out his day as best he could, so too are we Americans living out ours. In the face of whatever seeming catastrophe, disaster, plague, or invasion that is presented to us, we shall meet it head on, shoulder to shoulder. Whether upon that impact we stand tall and counter, bend our heads down, turn to the side, or crawl into a ball is simply the individual decision of each man as he is hit by the blow. No matter what, impact is always coming; like waves upon the beach, we can know for certain that even as we maneuver this attack, another is sure to follow behind. It is our minuscule and solitary decisions that each one of us makes which ultimately, in the aggregate, amalgamate into our history. We decide what happens. We consist of that which is, that which will be. We are what is. If you are interested in a longer discussion on this topic please consider a post of mine which discusses the concept of history in the great novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. You can find a link to that post here.
Currently as I write these words we are living in unprecedented times. Although it has been said that fortune favors the brave, I am sincerely concerned that the boldest among us today are those that define fortune in ways distinctly detrimental, destructive, and in a general sense unAmerican for too many of we the people. It is no fortune at all to have a society destitute, broken, afraid, and locked away. We are not animals in cages. We are men and women, children of God, and we belong free upon this earth just as birds, antelope, and bears meander their way through the forests. We must be allowed to burden ourselves with the struggle for our own survival. Take that away from us, no matter the institution or the reason, and what more shall we become but dogs in a corner – cowering or gnarling it makes no difference for we will be dogs nevertheless. Frederick Douglas powerfully proclaimed over 150 years ago “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” Are we now back once again to witness the tragedy of men being made into slaves?
When I was in 10th grade I read for the first time one of the most profound essays ever written – On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. Although I was immediately struck and fascinated by it – truly I loved it and still do so much – I was also acutely aware that I was simply not understanding significant portions of the text. My teacher at the time – the dear Miss Tracy (now Mrs. Saft) – explained to us all that this is one of the most complex texts we can read. She assured us not to worry or be concerned if we weren’t understanding it fully. Its wisdom will come. All in good time. And so as the years have gone on, I have read and re-read this masterpiece of an essay dozens of times, each at various stages of my own life and experience. Truly it is a dangerous text. Civil Disobedience is material proof for why the horror of censorship is ever attempted or enacted by those desperate and maniacal for power and control. It is truly a book of revolution. Each time I read it, I realize that I am understanding more and more of it. The essay is like a fine French wine except in this case I am the wine, and as I keep reading the text it seems to be getting more rich and full bodied. Each year I harvest more grapes and become my own new vintage to enjoy and savor.
The more I ponder on the current state of affairs today, the more I look to Thoreau and Civil Disobedience. As I read the essay again today, each and every line seems to be searing itself upon my heart, my brain, and my body. Surely if ever there was a time for this text it is today, just as its time has come during other momentous and tumultuous periods from our past. This text is dangerous I think in large part because it is so practical, so physical. As I read it my body is shaken alive. All things certainly do have their season, and we are living in one more great time when perhaps this text is ready yet again to shake the body politic. A wave has crashed upon us, perhaps this text can help us swim back to shore. The exact nature or influence of what we are witnessing and experiencing today rests in the hands of each and every one of us. We are the ones set and slated to struggle towards whatever duty we deem worthy of our service. The duties we bear allegiance to today shall ultimately be the history we leave behind for our descendants just as our forebears left behind for us the lives we have so lived up until now. This choice, whatever we decide, is only our choice. No one from the past and no one in our future can make this choice today, here and now. We all live within time and space; this time is forever ours and ours alone to live. All we have to do is live it well. For Thoreau’s efforts human progress is never lost, all is needed is one man, and once done it becomes complete, full, and eternal.
I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,—if ten honest men only,—aye, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever. But we love better to talk about it: that we say is our mission. Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man.
For Thoreau to find “one HONEST man” was a great feat and accomplishment he desperately sought for. Such a seemingly simple request was all he saw that was needed – just one honest man – in order to change America and likewise the world for the better. As we look over the known history of mankind, it is reasonable to conclude that a human progression or upward trend is in place. We can see from the horribly oppressive Egyptian empire up through Ancient Greece and Rome into the Europe of the Middle Ages and then into England and the Americas through to today a path of ever increasing freedom, abundance, and relative peace. Of course this is a broad brushstroke to paint over the course of 5,000 years. There have been many detours, retracements, and failures along the way, not to mention severe and great sacrifices which have been made as well.
In our politics today there is a group who refer to themselves as “Progressives.” And it would be fair to ask to what are they progressing and from what lineage of progress do they refer? Are they referring to this larger historical progress I have outlined here? Or perhaps is there some other type of progress they mean? If we look at the great historical progress we have made in Western Civilization what do we see? Primarily we see an expansion of freedom that is extended to more and more people. From the liberation of Israel out of the hands of the Pharaoh the great ethical code of Moses and Judaism was established. From Judaism Jesus Christ was birthed and with it the great transcendence of love and God over all things including the state. And so from Jesus Christ was the formation of the Catholic Church which among other things, preserved, expanded, and canonized the religious scholar, merging Jerusalem, Rome, and Athens into one resplendent thread. From that brilliant foundation Europe was built and monarchies established. From those monarchies the Americas were discovered. And from America the values of Divine Freedom and Liberty were established for the first (and perhaps only) time in the history of the world. It is from these values and ideals, as well as that entire lineage, that we were all born and have lived out our days here. And as we compare our standard of living and the concerns of our daily lives to those of Moses, Jesus, Erasmus, or George Washington, it is clear that we are the most blessed and abundant people to ever walk the Earth. If these “Progressives” today were to in fact be following this actual path of historical human improvement what would be their trajectory? What would their ideals and policies look and sound like? Do their ideals or policies coincide and harmonize with the ideals and policies of actual historical human progress?
Some in the Progressive movement claim that the progress of the past was riddled with contradiction, hypocrisy, and imperfection, and of course they are correct – obviously it was for we are all human after all. And let it be known and remembered that our actions today will also be viewed in the same manner by our descendants in time to come. We too, like our ancestors we look back upon with judgment or scorn, can also be judged in the same way. But these progressives seek to go further than to point out these hypocrisies and imperfections, instead it is claimed that these failures and flaws somehow nullify or re-write or destroy the genuine and real progress that did occur in the past. Is this true? Is it true that an imperfection nullifies a perfection? Does something bad ruin something good? If there is a tree which grows apples and some are bad and some are good – is the tree then bad? Do the good apples no longer exist now? Are the good now considered “officially” bad because of the existence of bad apples? And if that were to be true, why then could it not also be true that the bad apples be made to no longer exist and be made into good ones? By the same method of transposition why must the bad corrupt the good? Cannot the good atone for the bad? Clearly they make no sense, and such claims are not actually progressive at all. To follow in the actual, historical path of true human progress the answer is resounding – the good always prevails over the bad. Christ condemns all of us for we are all sinful, imperfect, and flawed – both the wheat and the chaff are harvested by His sickle. That which is good remains good forever more and is of use and value for all. That which is bad is tossed aside and burned down. Why then are these so-called “Progressives” not tossing aside the bad natures of our past and instead doing the opposite and picking them up and in an odd way revering or proclaiming the bad? Why are they not embracing and furthering our better natures? In short why are they not actually progressing? The hypocrisies which they condemn from the past are also the very same blessings which all of us, including them, have been the benefactors of. Why would they not wish to pass on the good they themselves received and our forefathers fought and died for? Is this progress at all? Based on an honest analysis of history and a genuine review of their policies it is clear that there is no progress in “Progressivism” today.
To better understand what real human progress looks like we must at least in part turn to Henry David Thoreau. In Civil Disobedience Thoreau opens the essay with a reference to a famous quote of his time perhaps from Thomas Jefferson or from a contemporary of his day John O’Sullivan. Nevertheless his first line is thus:
I HEARTILY accept the motto,—“That government is best which governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—“That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.
Powerful and resounding words indeed! Clearly Thoreau holds a progressive vision for mankind, but unlike “Progressivism” as it is known and touted about today, his is more in line with actual human progress which we see historically over time. To further Thoreau’s premise, if we look at the role of the state through human history what do we see? What is the relationship of the state to our genuine and real human progress? What has the state done for us over these 5,000 years? All of Israel was enslaved by Egypt. Socrates died at the hands of the state for what was clearly an unjust and criminal kangaroo court. Years later Aristotle wised up and chose to leave Athens when the state began to turn against him. Centuries later Cicero would lose his head to Mark Antony in the early Roman Empire. And then of course there is Jesus Christ. In each instance we see men sacrificing themselves before an all too powerful state. Never in the history of the world was our human progress stunted due to a government that was not big enough. Humans make their own progress naturally – we do not need “governments” to do what we will gladly do anyway and better. In fact much of our progress has come in the form of continually limiting and shaving down the role and influence of government upon people. In nearly all ways, the degree of a decrease in government influence coincided with an increase, sometimes multiples greater, in human progress. The issues historically that we have overcome from Moses and the Israelites to Martin Luther and Protestantism to our Founding Fathers and America as well as countless more, have always and forever been the very real problem of too big a government. Governance is like water, it always seems to spill over into any aspect of a society wherever it is not blocked and kept damned up. In America, our Founding Fathers recognized these great deficiencies in the apparatus of the state both in ancient times and in their own contemporary day, and they endeavored to remedy those deficiencies. What was birthed was nothing short of the greatest political construction ever conceived in the known history of man – the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America!
Interestingly Thoreau wrote his essay Resistance to Civil Government otherwise known as Civil Disobedience, just over a decade before the start of the Civil War. Each line of Civil Disobedience is pregnant with meaning, power, truth, and significance, but when placed into historical context as a precursor to the civil war, the real, material impact of the text is borne out. The text has a flesh and blood to it. In many respects I am urged to simply quote the whole essay in its entirety for it speaks better than perhaps I can for myself. But even in his day, not even 100 years after the Revolution, Thoreau was already keenly aware that perhaps that spark and greatness which ignited the USA and all it stood for was beginning to fizzle out and show blemishes, bumps, and bruises. The fabric of America was already being pulled upon, stretched, and coming undone. The state, even as well-crafted as it was by our Founding Fathers, was already “too much with us,” and Thoreau, in carrying on the proper American (and human) tradition towards real progress, rebelled against it in his own inimitable way. Perhaps it is too long a quote, but permit me to cite Thoreau from early on in his essay.
This American government–what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. _It_ does not keep the country free. _It_ does not settle the West. _It_ does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient, by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievious persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
Already by Thoreau’s time the great American state had become too large, too cumbersome, too over-powering, and was already clearly getting in the way of free men living out their lives, creating their histories, and being themselves. Imagine what Thoreau might say of America today! I suspect he would nearly fall over deaf, dumb, and blind. Freedom is in some sense more a mystery than we care to admit to ourselves, because often our own perceptions and cultural immersions refuse us from even realizing we are not in fact free. It is only through some external comparison, some frame of reference outside of and beyond ourselves that we can even begin to conceive of a more free and just expression. The great human progress through history, which includes the American project, is the process of continually limiting government, retarding it, and allowing more and more people all the freedoms a free life entails. In that sense it is of vital interest to our real human progress that we curtail our government, both locally, nationally, and certainly globally. For Thoreau the great linchpin to succeed in such a worthy task is to exercise civil disobedience.
I am beginning to realize that perhaps the concept of Freedom is probably more foreign to a great majority of people today than one may otherwise think. And such a thought, if true, is quite staggering to consider. We must first be free in our minds, in order that we may be free to walk upon this earth. When I think of Christ Jesus, I see a man walking freely. Freedom in every respect is a holy communion both with ourselves but also with all those around us as well as with God. It is a sacred honor to be Free, and the privilege is granted to all willing to pay her price. We must be willing to strip ourselves down to whatever bare skin and bones we have, to wrest ourselves of whatever chains, shackles, burdens and weights we may have heaped upon ourselves whether we know it or not. No one can give Freedom to another for Freedom is not possessed to begin with – not by any man, woman, child, institution, or state. In actual fact no one can take Freedom away from anyone either for it is always available for those seeking to take it. It is like the air all around us, simply present and available for all. To walk in Freedom is a testimony to the tone and nature of a man’s life lived ever more completely.
I suspect that Freedom is more easily understood when one no longer senses they have it. Those who no longer exercise their freedom do so precisely because they are unaware of Freedom in the first place. If true then we can fault our education system for such gross unawares. If not through education, how then does one become something which they are not? It is education which makes a man aware of something he was previously unaware of. In the absence of education to smoothly progress humanity to its freer state, all too often it would seem that pain and suffering become the mechanisms for such transformations. Eventually everyone becomes intolerant towards their pain and suffering and adjusts themselves accordingly. But even then without education how many will transform their pangs of suffering into further Freedom? Why wouldn’t they simply choose some new slavery or another? Pain and suffering themselves are not the great instruments for our wisdom. It is only through an eventual awareness, perhaps through pain but also through other educational methods or the Grace of God, that wisdom can make itself known to us. And yet again how can we eventually become aware of that which we are not aware of or are misunderstanding?
Freedom is already and always free. There is no delay or waiting. It will not just arrive some day upon our doorstep without our action. Certainly history, if nothing more, shows this to be true. Freedom does not, indeed cannot, force herself upon us. Freedom is not a tyranny, and she will outlast us all for she does not need us. We need her. She is not courting our favor, but yet she is always available. We are the suitor seeking her hand in marriage. And she is certainly to be cherished and adored.
All men wish to be free but most men do not realize they are in fact enslaved. And yet how rare is the man who not just realizes he is enslaved, but also knows how to emancipate himself? One of the more interesting notions Thoreau addresses is the mechanisms by which a man may live his life freely. He states:
I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live
in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not every thing to
do, but something; and because he cannot do every thing, it is not
necessary that he should be doing something wrong. It is not my business
to be petitioning the governor or the legislature any more than it is
theirs to petition me; and, if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then?
It is fascinating to note that for Thoreau civil disobedience is not for the purpose of making the world a better place. He decidedly does not care if the world is a “good place to live.” He does not view “progress” as making everyone happy, rich, safe, healthy, and/or well fed. No! That is decidedly not his interest, focus, goal, or intent. He wishes only to live freely. Freedom is the only real good which civil disobedience seeks, pursues, cherishes, and loves. Thoreau is not on a crusade to change the world one particular way or another – rather he wishes to be free to live however he so wishes and for all other men to likewise have the same such freedom too. All else is quite literally free and open for each man to do with as he so pleases. In those ends it is clear to see how slavery is a real, prime, and foundational concern for Thoreau and how civil disobedience directly relates to the emancipation of all slaves and slaveholders alike. This type of limiting of one’s freedom to enslave another is of course just and true and good, but one may argue that it is not fully or truly free – since it is refusing a person the ability to enslave another. And such a contention, however ridiculous it may sound, is more prevalent today in various discussions and issues than one may care to realize or admit. The proper and cogent response of course reminds of a great quote by GK Chesterton where he states:
There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped.
So too is there a freedom which stops freedom, and that is the only freedom that must be stopped. And really any thought that seeks to stop thought is not a thought at all but stupidity. Likewise a freedom which stops freedom is not freedom at all but enslavement. Therefore it is not only right and just but also thoughtful and liberating to curtail it, limit it, and disallow it. Although it is true that those types of moments and instances are rare, it does appear they are applicable to our times today and likewise must be addressed and refuted all too often in the ways we are approaching this or that issue. Personally I greatly appreciate this reductive and simplified approach to living life on terms of one’s own. For Thoreau, to be free is not made manifest through a political protest or a petition, but rather it is through the simple and direct act of doing precisely that which he finds before him to do. He has his purpose, his intention, and so naturally he lives that out. The government has no power over him, because he simply refuses to give it his attention and due. What is a protest, but really an admission in the negative that the government does indeed have power over you and holds the keys to your freedom? To truly protest the government simply ignore it; go live your life regardless. As Thoreau also states earlier in the essay:
One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority, was the only offense never contemplated by government.
Freedom is not asked for, protested, or demanded, it is simply lived freely. Civil Disobedience is like a muscle that will get stronger as it is exercised. To use it is to have it, and to have it is to use it. Sacrifices of course may be required, for nothing including Freedom, is free, but the only duty she appears to demand of us is simply to be ourselves. However as we look back through history, and perhaps even in our own individual lives, sometimes that simple act of being can cost us a great deal. Again to quote Thoreau from the essay:
If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle,—the perception and the performance of right,—changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with any thing which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; aye, it divides the _individual_, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.
All roads lead us to God. Even a matter of public justice, as Thoreau eloquently and powerfully illustrates here, ultimately results in a private, individual theological dilemma between good and evil. And since freedom is the main concern of justice, as the opening quote by Edmund Burke so describes, God then relates to us primarily through a prism of Freedom. How we live our lives justly is also how we live our lives freely. So when Jesus calls upon us to love one another as he has so loved us, and to love our neighbors as ourselves is it not appropriate then to simply replace Love with Freedom? Are not the Ten Commandments a more specific codex of how to love and to be free in the just eyes of the Lord?
Interestingly the more I ponder Thoreau’s ideas and consider how might I enact them today, in this day and age of the almighty “coronavirus,” the more I question the term civil disobedience. I do not like that word. It grates upon me and lifts up the hairs on my neck. It was one thing for Thoreau, in bucolic Concord to be sentenced to prison for not paying his taxes, but it is quite another to be bludgeoned in the streets today or sent to the county jail in any major city let alone the legal costs associated with all of it. Of course there are many before us who have paid a much higher price than I ever will, but still nevertheless I lean more towards a life so lived (and passed as the case may be) to the likes of Aristotle rather than of Socrates, or by John the Beloved, who also passed away peacefully in Greece, rather than say St. Peter in Rome, upside down on a cross. How then can I be both safe as well as proactive? Can I limit my personal risk while still maximizing my public reward? Because I do not wish to cower away, and do desire, like Thoreau and so many others in our history, to stand tall for what is true and right in the world, I have sought a new framework for myself. Instead of considering myself as being “disobedient” to the state or some institution, I instead view myself as being obedient to the higher virtues of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (and property too!). In this way I am no longer in “resistance” to anything at all. I am simply for something greater than myself which is also good and right and virtuous. This to me is in perfect and even direct lineage with the life, death, teachings, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as well as the larger arc of human progress we have outlined here today and the great men and women who contributed to that progress. It is all one. We are all one. Life is all one. Freedom is all one. We are each our brothers’ keeper – we must keep each other wrapped in freedom. Such is the will of God for all mankind, and so it matters not in the slightest how many, if any at all, agree with us, support us, or fight against us. History shows us time and again one man with God is more than enough, and once active, many more will soon participate too. Again let me quote Thoreau from Civil Disobedience here speaking out in regards to slavery and the efforts of the abolitionist movement.
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one already.
Remember these words were written nearly a decade before the Civil War – thankfully he was right. He placed his faith in God and any one man willing to stand beside God’s righteousness. One minor man before God can and will certainly transform a majority of people. Such is the history of Israel, of Jesus Christ, of the West at large, America in particular, and all of us alive here today. This essay is a foreshadowing of the eventual victory in the civil war, and the continuation of human progress through history. We all are called upon to hold civil obedience to these higher laws of freedom, justice, and equality. So long as each one of us, in our own special way does, then history tells us we will be blessed, we will be free, and God will be with us in our favor.
We cannot judge anyone for their actions no matter what they may be. We can only reconfirm for ourselves what it is that we do, what it is that we stand for, and go forward into this world and do that. Those that care to join us shall do so however they wish and will. But honestly what is that to any one man with God? If anything camaraderie makes each of us less than ourselves, for now we have “the group” to speak so for us, and so arises another institution. Rather let ourselves be a collection of “I’s” – Independent, Free, Clear, and One. Freedom is a virtue, and virtue is a faith in a higher order of justice acted out upon this world. We the people must be that virtue, we must act out Freedom unto this world. It is the first great American tradition and the ultimate purpose to all of our humanity so blessed by God now and forever more.