Motives for Fighting Freedom

It is puzzling paradox that often those who enjoy the fruits of freedom work against the very freedom which has given them privilege and protection. Why should it be so? There may be many answers. And one answer may be that some people really don’t know when they are well off. They are the chronic malcontents. It wouldn’t matter what way of life they were privileged to partake of, they would always be dissatisfied and against whatever is. There are people like that, and it doesn’t appear that anyone has ever been able to account for them. Then there are those who are sincerely deceived, those who accept the false assumptions of others, who haven’t seen the whole picture, who haven’t projected the pattern to its ultimate conclusion. Then there is another class of people who advocate the abolition of freedom, and who are not to be taken lightly. When they speak of leveling and regimenting men, they never see themselves as being leveled or regimented. They see themselves in preferential positions, as the leaders of movements. They see themselves not as of the mass of men, but as movers of the masses; not as being controlled, but as those who do the controlling. They may be sincere in believing that the failure of freedom would be a good thing, because, as they see it, it would not be their freedom that would be forfeited, but the freedom of others. They may reason that they have little to lose. If they win they will be masters. But if they fail in their fight against freedom, they will claim the privileges and protection of freedom. And free men in a free land will be lenient with them⎯or so they suppose. These are but a few of many reasons why we should scrutinize with great care the purposes of those who would use freedom to destroy freedom. And this let us never forget: Whatever faults or inefficiency freedom may be charged with, whatever it may leave lacking, life with freedom offers more that makes life worth living than anyone was able to offer anyone in any other way.