I have a dear friend who feels compelled to inform me that he is
“probably the most liberal friend you (I) have!” I always think how wrong he is because the
most liberal friends I have are my wife, children, brothers and sister and mom. My friend considers his alignment with most
of the popular beliefs of our day validates his liberal understanding of
himself. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Liberal comes from the idea
of the freedom of humans to be, liberating oneself from the prevailing current
of cultural mandates. Today it is
becoming more and more difficult to live a liberated life because the powers
that be are becoming more emboldened to require belief by consent if possible, by
force if necessary. There is nothing
liberating about tyranny. My family,
following historical examples, mainly my parents, have chosen to live alongside
popular currents of culture but living in opposition, swimming in the same
stream but in opposite direction. At one
point this was neither noticeable nor problematic but in fact celebrated for
its commitment to cause. Now however, as
the powers of popular belief become more powerful and truly more sinister,
opposition of belief is to be isolated, publicly condemned, forced compliant
and if necessary thrown out of the stream.
The more powerful the current of popular belief, the more liberal those
that swim in opposition to it become.
Freedom in a mass is unrecognizable from coerced freedom. Being free from the mass, accepting the
possibility of marginalization, answering to The Only Power capable of setting
you truly free from tyranny that makes all human desires acceptable, is the
most liberal and liberating idea for humans and for human culture. If we are ever truly set free we are “free indeed”
and that is the most liberal of all ways of being truly human. The Bensons didn’t invent that but we have
accepted it.
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