Does Government Give Freedom or Take Freedom

Our American Journey

Sometimes it seems as if "Conversation" has become a bad word in our country, as if talking to someone not in complete agreement with you is a sign of weakness. Sometimes it seems as if Anger is the only energizing force we now allow ourselves. But that’s not America. In America two people can disagree but still respect the basic humanity of the other person. In America it’s possible to disagree without hate, to talk without shouting. I believe, even still, in the ideal of the United States of America, a democracy where each person has the right to pursue their own life and have their own opinion. If our country is less great than it once was, it is because we have slipped away from this idea, this belief that all men and women have the right to choose the course of their own lives, and their own opinions. It is both the left and the right that have slipped away from this idea, allowed their anger to somehow convince themselves to question the humanity of the other side. Sometimes it seems that fighting anger with reason is impossible. But if history has proven anything, it is that reason does always eventually win. This blog is my effort to again have a conversation, to replace anger with reason. I hope you will join me in a conversation, and together we can recapture the faith in our country and our citizens that made America great.

I’d love to have your contribution to the conversation. If you’d like to leave a comment, you can do so at https://www.facebook.com/BlakeAshbyPage. Thanks for reading.

Does Government Give Freedom or Take Freedom?

6/11/2023

Does government give freedom or take freedom?

“Government” is shorthand for groups of people joining together to collaboratively decide their actions.

One of nature’s values is collaboration. In some species, groups collaborate to better meet their needs. Lions often hunt together. Collaboration gives all of the creatures collaborating together a better chance of surviving nature than on their own.

One of the things that separates humans from other species is our almost unlimited ability to collaborate. Early humans collaborated to stay alive in a harsh and unforgiving nature. Today we collaborate globally to produce the goods and services that give us our life.

Two other values of nature are efficiency and precision. The more efficient a creature is in meeting its needs, the better its ability to survive nature. A trout in a stream has to ensure the energy produced by catching and eating an insect has to be greater than the energy used by the trout in catching the insect. The less energy expended to get the insect, the better. Precision impacts efficiency. If the trout strikes at the insect and is imprecise, it misses, and has inefficiently wasted energy. Striking precisely is more efficient and increases the trout’s chances of surviving. Nature values efficiency, precision and for some species, collaboration.

Collaboration allows specialization. Instead of each person having to know how to do every task to survive, different people can know different tasks well, and so do them better. One person can be better at making stone spear tips, another person at throwing the spears. The stronger, more precisely the spear is thrown, the better chance of striking the prey. The sharper, straighter the spear tip, the better chance of piercing the prey and wounding or killing it. This ability to specialize gives the group a better chance of surviving nature. However specialization requires greater precision. If each person is only doing a part of the process, the different parts of the different people have to fit together.

The ability of humans to collaborate efficiently and precisely is why we have our modern, technologically advanced world. It’s why we have the amazing freedoms we have.

Again, “Government” is how we manage this collaboration. It’s how we ensure each person is able to take part in the collaboration.

People only collaborate to give themselves more freedom.

At a fundamental level, the purpose of government is to give freedom.

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