Frontier of Freedom

Never in history has a time been more important than now. Many great persons in many past times have said this. And in all instances they have been correct. Civilization grows, it progresses, it develops, and in each minute of each day, the significance of that moment is of greater importance than any one before it. Because in each new moment, more sacrifices have been made and more examples of right and wrong are at our disposal. So it is true; never has there been more at stake. Along the winding roads, through the crests and troughs, the journey of humanity has led us to this moment, one in which the bastion of liberty, finds itself at the inflection point of a millennium. 2000 years of war, tyranny, and struggle produced a generation of thinkers, who against all odds, made the ultimate sacrifice. They ventured across the seas, they fought back global powers, and they meticulously and nobly grew and cared for this sapling, in the Land of the Free. It is in this moment that we, as the posterity of freedom, find ourselves at the helm of her great ship. We are the captains of this magnificent vessel called the United States of America. We have the moral obligation and the power to determine her course. We must choose the Frontier of Freedom. The waters will be choppy, as they always have been. But the architects who designed this boat, the builders who crafted it by hand with blood, sweat and tears, and the many great passengers who have inhabited her decks and halls, now entrust us with the responsibility to continue that journey, to continue to navigate towards freedom.

At the helm of this great ship, and as generational inheritors of liberty and freedom, to better chart our course, we must start from first principles. In book 8 of Aristotle's Physics he examines that the idea of "before and after" require a first principle. First Principles are the lowest level of analyses that you can arrive at when looking at complex concepts and working back up. You can think of these first principles in the context of our ongoing metaphor, as the tools to navigate and steer the ship; the sail, the wheel, and the compass. We can use this framework to guide us on our Frontier of Freedom.

America herself has First Principles, our Logos, defined in the Declaration of Independence; Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. These form the wheel that steers the boat. They steer our decision making, our form of government and our laws. The simplicity and comprehensiveness of these three concepts can navigate the choppy waters. Particularly liberty; the quality or state of being free. If we are to remain steadfast on the frontier of freedom, we must elevate liberty to be of absolute importance, as it was always intended. This means being very careful to cede freedoms. The idea of a government by the people, for the people, is that of a social contract as Hobbes and Locke stated. Government is a necessary evil. So, we must limit it, in order to maximize liberty. With this almost singular lens, the youth of America have the tools they need to push back on whomever occupies the governing seats in whatever era it may be. They can ask, "will this give us more opportunity at a free life? Will this provide for more liberty? Am I and everyone around me better able to pursue happiness?" It is the wisdom, instantiated in the founding documents of our nation, which can ensure that we do not stray from the course.

The conceptual framework of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness accurately represent the very structure of our nation and the psychology of our citizenry. The US Pathos has first principles. Using this methodology, we can understand that a nation is just collective societies built around commonly agreed laws and values. What then is a society? A society is just a group of individuals who work together under the pretenses of those laws and values. Thus we've arrived at the lowest level of a nation - the individual. If you want to have a better nation, have better societies. If you want to have better societies, have better individuals. Here is the kicker, you cannot make other individuals better, but you can make yourself better. Working back upwards, if everyone makes themselves better, we will have a better society. When we have better societies, we will have a better nation. The individual is the most baseline principle for a nation, as her most important element. This is something American's have always understood. And it is this discovery, by which we understand that each individual is part of the sail of our great metaphorical ship, the propelling force capturing the winds of innovation, love and bravery. As is a sail, so to are we, woven together to form the larger whole. As the progeny entrusted to traverse the choppy waters on the frontier of freedom, we have individual obligations to be the best versions of ourselves. 

Finally, we can apply first principles to understand our success as a people, as a nation which has brought prosperity and peace, fought back evil empires, and created opportunities for millions. The US Ethos, our morality, our ethics. Temperance, Prudence, Justice, and Fortitude, the Four Cardinal Virtues. You can think of this as the compass. A moral compass, which provides north from south, east from west, and when they are aligned properly, our course is steadfast and on track. America is a nation of principles, and we must remember the success they've fostered. Our structure of government, which limits federal power and gives power to the states is the very embodiment of temperance. The checks and balances in that system, limited terms, the cautionary environment that we created with regards to power is the embodiment of prudence. Our system of law, of being innocent until proven guilty, of having a right to an attorney, this is the embodiment of justice. And our American Spirit - willing sacrifice, which has prevailed through war, depression, and division, embodies fortitude. Our compass has steered us straight from the beginning of this great nation. And like a compass is a tool which has no subjective interpretation, so too are the cardinal virtues, and the US Ethos.

As we look to the future of our nation - our civilization and our way of life, we see many problems ahead. The waves are high and the storms rage. All around us, divisiveness is dichotomized by unity. Prosperity is juxtaposed with suffering. Extremities are diverging farther apart. But this great ship remains intact. In every corner of every county, at the hearth of many millions of homes, there are patriots. In Ronald Reagan's speech, A Time for Choosing, perhaps the greatest speech ever made by an American, he said the following, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny, we'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness." This is as true now as it was in 1964, as it was in 1939, 1914, 1860, 1812, and 1776. Our destiny is the Frontier of Freedom.