…Freedom?
Terry Goodkind’s Faith of The Fallen never ceases to be an inspirational novel, and listening to the audio book recently I was inspired by something Kahlan, the lead female character, said.
This statement, simple as it sounds, is remarkably profound. How so? Well, it’s profundity lies in the fact that it’s meaning is two fold.
The first, and probably most obvious meaning of the statement is that freedom does in fact mean to soar on you’re own wings. Freedom is that virtue of unrestricted moral action by which one may act in order to achieve his values. Only if a man is free from any claim on his life can he achieve the goals that he sets for himself. So long as he is in bondage, no matter to whom or to what, he can never expect to achieve his values. He can never soar to his own great heights, but will be limited to the values, to the heights that his master’s chains will allow; values that are not his own, but his master’s. When man’s course of action is restricted it is impossible for him to seek the achievement of any goal, it is impossible for him to attempt even to rise above mediocrity, much less to achieve any soaring greatness.
Pretty obvious so far, yes? Well here’s the kicker. Freedom doesn’t stop at soaring. In fact, there’s a very important caveat to the soaring greatness that it’s possible to achieve. It must be achieved on your own wings. Yes, freedom, true freedom, does mean to soar, but it requires that we do so under our own power. We must act for ourselves. Just as soaring is impossible on a chain, so too is it impossible on the wings of another. Morally, man has no right to enslave others. Similarly he has no reason to enslave others. The moral purpose of a man’s life is the achievement of his values, for the sake of his happiness. That can only be done under his own power.
No man who has ever achieved greatness has done so by riding on the back of another. This is because the achievement in any such circumstance belongs to the man beneath him. Reality cannot be faked, and the reality is that any achievement belongs solely to the man who has attained it. It is impossible to soar, to achieve the greatest of heights, the greatest values, by riding on the back of one’s fellow man.
Freedom, true freedom, leaves man with an unrestricted means to achieve greatness, but only by means of his own effort. It does not entitle man to the work, the time, the achievements, the values of his fellow men.
There is no violation of freedom, you who claim that there is, when you are discriminated against in a job interview. Freedom does not entitle you to your fellow man’s positive opinion of you.
There is no violation of freedom, you who claim that there is, when you are denied a portion of your fellow mans hard earned money. Freedom does not entitle you to your fellow man’s production.
There is no violation of freedom, you who claim that there is, when you are denied medical care because of your inability to pay and your lack of insurance. Freedom does not entitle you to your fellow man’s effort against his will.
There IS a violation of freedom employer, worker, doctor, and all you others who have been stripped of some portion of your values for the sake of the “less fortunate” “the victims of circumstance” “the greater good”. Freedom means to soar on your own wings, and you have been denied that ability, bound and chained into mediocrity, for the sake of the imagined; a bastardized idea of freedom that is, in truth, nothing more than ugly entitlement.
Freedom is NOT entitlement. Freedom is unrestrained achievement by means of one’s own effort. Freedom is soaring on your own wings.
