Forging our own chains

I’ve been reading John Locke’s Second Treatises of Government and am struck by the truths that we’ve long forgotten as a society. In the late 18th century, a group of unrepresented colonists fought to the death to overthrow an out-of-touch, over-reaching monarchy that threatened the freedom of individuals and families.

In 1776, the chains were broken and an imperfect, but extraordinarily fabulous, nation was born. The economy exploded as adventurous spirits opened businesses, pioneered the vast and little-settled western frontier and began what would eventually become the most influential and free society on earth. Less than 100 years later, blood was spilled to end the injustice of slavery – an institution as pervasive as any throughout human history. America had put an end to an evil tradition that still rears its ugly head in other parts of the world today.

My concern as I read Locke’s writing is that we are forgetting the value of what freedom affords us. When we view government not as a collection of self-concerned individuals with competing interests and ideals (which it is, just as the rest of us private citizens are), we begin to see a massive government as a solution to our every ailment and complaint.

Unfortunately, there are no solutions. There are only tradeoffs. When governments around the country shut down businesses as a response to COVID-19, it was done to protect us from a deadly virus. Problem solved, right? Perhaps not. I bet a lot of small business owners and their employees, as well as their independent-thinking customers, would have liked to make the decision about how to navigate the pandemic on their own. Instead, they had to shut their doors because someone else was making the call for them.

This isn’t about COVID or what is best in any particular situation. This is about who gets to decide what is best. The closer to the individual that a decision can be made, the better. And each time we allow armchair warriors in Washington or elsewhere in government to dictate how the game gets played, we continue forging our own chains.

They say freedom doesn’t come free, but we unfortunately only seem to appreciate that truth in a hypothetical, superficial way. The more freedom we concede, the greater the cost to get it back. If we ever do.