The Freedom To Succeed

As we live our lives and and search for meaning and significance we can only hope that we somehow we see what it means to be free and live in a place where we can make choices and find fulfillment through those choices. 

About two years ago I was a guest attending a veterans committee meeting at my local association of Realtors.  The discussion revolved around events that would recognize the the men and women that had given service to our country. In many organizations veterans and military personnel are recognized for their willingness to be a part of the force that is ready at anytime to rise and defend the causes of freedom that are unique to the United States.

I think we want honor their willingness to take whatever unknown events lie ahead in their service and the discipline of preparing for those events including placing themselves in harms way and the possibility of giving their life in that service.

I have read many books and attended many "success" seminars, as do many self employed or sales people.   As I continued to ask myself what the real reason that freedom was important and what is a key ingredient for success,  it seemed clear in an unprecedented way the the Freedom to Succeed was very much dependent on the Freedom to Fail

It is on these two extremes that a free market economy and freedom in general are able to exist. They cannot be abrogated on either end without encroaching on freedom and taking rights from some part of society. The Declaration of Independence explains that Life, liberty and Pursuit of Happiness are those basic rights along with many others.  When an individual or a government infringes on those rights then if the people wish to preserve them, they must take action to do so.

Currently in the United States we do not really have a free market economy.  It is controlled by taxes, regulations and monetary policies that are steadily suffocating our economy. The attempts at regulation seem to be founded on the idea that government can somehow control or eliminate uncertainty in life and the world.  The natural laws of supply and demand and a desire to be successful will sustain and help more people to meet the needs of life and beyond than government regulation ever will.

The founders of this nation had studied law and governments from every age and saw clearly the relationship between freedom and self government. To be free from kings and monarchs that can rule by whim and arbitrary measures requires a self imposed willingness. 

Certain principles must be followed and the knowledge as to how freedom is gained and lost must be studied.  When we as a society stop living by those principles and remain ignorant of them, our freedoms can be taken a degree at a time as we slide towards the likeness of a monarchy.  The two current political parties do in fact rule as oligarchies entrenched in a seemingly endless battle for political power.

The constitution was established to keep government within prescribed bounds and to keep it from taking away freedom and individual liberty.  Those designated powers are now ignored almost with impunity.  While certain rights are indeed unalienable and all men may be created equal with respect to those rights they can be taken away by ignorance, malfeasance and tyranny.

So for who and what are our service men and women in the army, navy, air force and marines fighting for?   Are they defending freedom, us the people, our territorial boundaries, the constitution and its principles of government and individual rights or what?   

Each of us needs to ask and answer these questions to the best of our ability and study history, philosophy and especially what the founders of the greatest freedom mankind has ever known have written about it. While success may be our goal it is impossible to reach without freedom.  

The history of the last two plus centuries show that no foreign powers have invaded our shores with guns and armies yet our freedoms and property are readily confiscated through laws, regulations and taxation by our own representatives and the misuse of their powers.

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