The word “liberty” is
frequently bandied about in political and media circles. It is impossible to
argue that liberty is not a good thing. We all celebrate the liberation of
slaves, the liberation of women and other oppressed groups. Most of us
recognise the need for freedom of speech and for a free press. We cherish the
right to live our lives as we choose.
Yet the word
“liberty”, and perhaps the very concept, can become a tool of oppression. We
often defend our own liberty at the expense of someone else’s. We defend our
own liberty most vigorously when it gives us an advantage over another.
Conversely, we become an opponent of liberty when it threatens our own comfort
or well-being.
Those who parade
through the media with the god/goddess of liberty held high, are misguided. Liberty
is not an unqualified good. It is only one good, which needs to be balanced
against others. A society, which consists of a large number of people who agree
to live together in quest of some mutual benefit, must always balance
individual liberty against other equally worthy values. Those who hold up
liberty as a deity are perfectly well aware of this. They agree, implicitly and
explicitly, to the curtailing of liberty on every side. Often, those who
advocate liberty, also support the strongest sanctions against those who
transgress society’s laws – which usually involves at least the loss of
liberty, if not the loss of life. Those who advocate liberty also protest most
loudly against, for example, the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy, or
the rights of a same sex couple to marry. Those who most loudly advocate
liberty often wish, in fact, to curtail it as much, and probably more, than
those who are often disparagingly called “liberals”.
In fact, the louder and
more often someone shouts “liberty”, the more I am sure they are simply
interested in shoring up their own positions of power, which also, inevitably,
limits the freedom and rights of others.
Before we make a god
(or even a “lady”) of liberty, let her enter into dialogue with justice and
compassion.
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