The Cognitive Dissonance of Freedom

I've often noted in this space that as I was taught in school - back when they taught such things - there's a difference between freedom (the state of being able to act without hindrance or restraint; liberty of
action) and license (freedom that allows or is used with irresponsibility; disregard for standards of personal conduct). It seems to me that what used to be the Republican party no longer understands this distinction.

American conservatives, led by a Republican party which has been hopelessly twisted and corrupted by Der Furor and his enablers*, loudly proclaim that they are the party of freedom, and that their freedom is being infringed by dastardly liberals who are nothing more than wild-eyed socialists bent on destroying the nation. But consider where the limitations on freedom are actually coming from.

It is true that most "liberals" support some degree of infringement of the right to "keep and bear arms" guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The reason for this is obvious given the tremendous level of gun  violence in present-day America, fueled in large part by the staggering number of military-grade weapons in private hands and court decisions which reject limits on the ownership and carrying of firearms. The freedom to "keep and bear arms" has morphed into the license to pack iron of any type, at any time, in any place, for any reason (or no reason), regardless of the demonstrated threat to public health and safety. 

Deeply conservative and ostentatiously religious Americans insist on removing books to which they object from school and public libraries. Should the freedom of American citizens to read the books they choose be limited by the license of a conservative morality police who are offended by certain ideas, behaviors, or lifestyles? In the fevered world of the GOP, it's not an issue ... the freedom to avoid exposure to unpleasant or unwanted ideas gives them license to limit the freedom of others to undertake discussion of difficult or controversial topics, or to live as they choose.

Many conservative parents insist on their freedom to manage what their children learn in school by exercising the license to browbeat local school boards into teaching only what they believe should be taught, imagining anything else to be the hated indoctrination of their children with ideas they do not support. 

The Supreme Court's Griswold v Connecticut decision in 1965, which legalized contraception, and its Roe v Wade decision in 1973 which legalized abortion, gave American women the freedom to manage their reproductive health and the size of their families. This year's decision in Planned Parenthood v Casey gave religious conservatives license to take those freedoms away.

Childhood diseases long since vanquished by advancements in vaccination, like measles and pertussis (whooping cough), are reappearing because some parents insist on the freedom to not vaccinate their children ... giving them license to let their children become ill and to infect others. At the same time, many Americans refuse to accept vaccinations against Covid-19 and its variants - a disease which has killed more than a million people in the United States alone - insisting that their freedom to control what goes into their bodies gives them license to impede efforts to control a deadly epidemic.

Freedom implies a mutual respect for the rights and interests of others; license implies that the rights and interests of others are unimportant and must be subordinated to your own. 

I like to think the Founders wanted to establish a nation that leavened freedom with responsibility and mutual respect. I like to think they understood that if freedom careened off into license, their experiment in self-governance would be imperiled. I think they would be utterly aghast at the state of political thought and discourse in this country today, and how their sacrifices to form a new nation of freedom are being wasted in the service of radical conservatism.

Enjoy the freedoms you are guaranteed as an American. But avoid the temptation to view them as a license to trample on the rights and freedoms of others.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming. 

Bilbo

* If you're interested in the longer-term history of the ruin of the GOP, read Dana Milbank's book, The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party."