Freedom

One advantage of external enemies is that they could bring us together as a nation. Since external enemies used to produce unity, those of us old enough to remember are sad they don't anymore. While we all have enemies, we no longer have the same enemies.

This July 4, we can agree Americans believe in freedom. Earlier this blog at some length gave attention to the question of what freedom is. Is it a negative concept that means the absence of controls? Or does freedom require positive factors, such as economic justice, that make freedom possible? As noted, Isaiah Berlin’s influential essay on liberty warned that placing any qualification on freedom starts one down the slippery slope toward authoritarianism.

What’s the health of (negative) freedom in America in 2006? It depends a great deal on how one views democracy building overseas. Does it help insure our freedom at home by making it more secure elsewhere? Or does war distort the very values we cherish when we honor freedom? In America today, Libertarians are divided between those who believe we need to secure freedom abroad to assure it at home, and those who don’t. Religious Conservatives support building democracy abroad and using government to advance religious beliefs at home. Conservative Democrats want government to assure economic justice at home, and go along with building democracy abroad.

Liberals have a detailed positive agenda at home—social engineering on behalf of all minorities and women, restrictions on business to protect the environment, redistribution of wealth in the name of equality—tied to rejecting foreign policy activism except for humanitarian reasons. Adventures abroad drain wealth Liberals want used at home. And "national security" seems to mean war and killing abroad matched by restrictions on freedom at home.

Liberals’ enemies are Americans. Here’s an example. “Mission Impossible” was a 1960’s TV series that pitted CIA-like operatives against evil Communists. Now Communists are scarce, while Islamic-based terrorism threatens the West. So who is Tom Cruise’s current enemy? Not al Qaeda, but rather rogue operatives with White House connections who foment war abroad to create business for Halliburton-like firms.

I guess Hollywood really does think like Michael Moore: we are in Iraq because of Halliburton.