From the earliest times in human history, most members of the human species have been subjugated by some form of enslavement, whether from a dictatorship, a feudal system, a slave economy or an autocratic government. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes described the life of man as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Then, in 1776, fugitives from oppressive regimes decided to create a new nation in which individual autonomy was paramount and people were free to express their opinions and worship as they saw fit..
In the 250 years that followed, the United States of America blossomed into a nation in which individual freedoms reached unprecedented levels. The oppressive bonds of slavery were shed and equality of opportunity became a goal for all citizens. America became a beacon of hope for those in other countries who wished to share in what became “the American Dream.”
Today, most of the world’s population is located in countries where criticizing government policy results in internment in a slave camp or worse. Hundreds of thousands of fugitives from other nations line up at the southern border of the United States to escape the kinds of conditions described by Thomas Hobbes.
The events in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and more recently the Draconian Covid restrictions in China, as well as the war in Ukraine remind us that most of the world’s population is living in a form of captivity. Why is it that Americans can have such a high level of personal freedom when so much of the rest of the world population is constrained?
To answer this question, we need to look no further than the two World Wars of the 20th century, when freedom was under siege. Were it not for the military of the US and its allies, we might all be speaking a different language, suffering some form of enslavement and deprived of the personal autonomy that we now enjoy. It is the ultimate sacrifice made by those who served in the military and their families to whom we are all indebted for our current quality of life. So on this Memorial Day, we acknowledge this huge debt and celebrate our freedom. As John McCrae expressed in his famous poem:
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
