Personal freedom is probably one of the most important things a person can have. Without it, almost everything else is useless. No matter how much money you have, without personal freedom and liberty, the money is completely useless. Arguably the most important documents in history, in terms of personal freedom, are the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States. So, why is the Bill of Rights so Important? It is because it guarantees the basic, fundamental rights that allow a person to be free.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of American citizens who do not understand the contents of the Bill of Rights. That is something that I have struggled with too as I studied the document. Ratified on December 15th, 1791, you can imagine the type of old English it is written in. That is one of the reasons why I picked up Sean Patrick’s book The Know Your Bill of Rights Book. In this book, he walks you through each amendment, explaining exact definitions of words that could be confusing or uncommon, as well as providing historical context. This gives the reader the ability to better interpret and understand each amendment in our Bill of Rights in their own terms.
Before Freedom
Most people are familiar with the general structure of society in the dark ages and before the dawn of western civilization. Generally, there was a king with a small group of elites below him, and they essentially had control over the common people. For a good visual of this, as well as an absolutely fantastic story, watch or read Braveheart. Shameless plug, it’s one of my favorite movies.
Anyways, what is my point? In these systems, millions of people have died at the whims of a single person, a king. Slavery had the same effect as well. Millions of people throughout history have suffered and died simply because they were born into the wrong social class. They were governed by another social class where the power was pretty much arbitrary. The serfs, slaves, and common people in these societies had to deal with things that took away their freedom.
The Change
So, what exactly is different about western civilization? What changed in terms of personal freedom? I would argue it was a change in perspective. Freedom was thought of as something that was granted by government or monarchy in the centuries of war and slavery. What changed was the definition of freedom. People realized that true freedom is an intrinsic will and right that comes with life. It is a god given right, not government given. All this is true for all people of all nations.
This is why western civilization has been the destination for so many oppressed people throughout the past two and a half centuries. There is a reason so many people have immigrated to the west, and I think the main reason for that is in these unalienable rights, an implied emphasis on the individual and not the entire group. As soon as a nation shifts its focus from enforcing the sovereignty of the individual and focuses on the greater good of society, the individual no longer matters as much. Soon, the well-being of an individual is considered irrelevant by the society, especially if it is a dissenting individual. The society will tend to oust (sometimes even murder) the individual, which is especially the case if the society deems the individual dangerous for whatever reason, even if they pose no real threat. Sound familiar… This brings up the same ethical questions Dostoevsky poses in Crime and Punishment, with Raskolnikov murdering the horrendous pawnbroker. I’ll link the post on Crime and Punishment at the bottom in case you aren’t familiar with these questions.
Enforcement
If a government can search or imprison its citizens in erratic ways without any consequences, those citizens cannot exercise their fundamental rights. If you are already familiar with the Bill of Rights, some of this diction should sound familiar; the fourth amendment is the first one that comes to my mind. It is for this reason that the Founding Fathers developed the checks and balances between the different branches of the government. The original structure was designed to diversify power so that one branch cannot become tyrannical.
As Jefferson said in a letter to John Adams, “Let me add that a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”[1] Without this explicit declaration of rights, Jefferson worried that the legislature would eventually become tyrannical, and this would develop into a tyrannical executive.
So how do we maintain our level of freedom and prevent the government from usurping power over individuals? Remember that the United States is NOT a pure democracy, it is a constitutional republic. In a pure democracy, the individual can be overrun by the majority. Some people argue that the majority should rule, but I would like to warn you what can happen when that happens. The majority can be deceived by a demagogue, 1930s Germany ring a bell. It is amazing what people can be convinced of with propaganda. If your curious, study the use of propaganda in 1930s Germany and the Soviet Union in almost the entire 20th century. It is definitely a good use of your time and might even seem uneasily familiar, depending on where you are from.
Ignorance leads to Tyranny
As you are probably aware, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are on paper. They didn’t have PDFs back in the late 18th century. So how exactly will a piece of paper keep a civilization free? It doesn’t. Its just a piece of paper. It is up to the people to hold the government in check. Meaning that “enough people of the same mind and willingness to defy tyranny can overcome any opposition and secure their future”[2].
So, it is the citizens’ responsibility to ensure the government does not infringe on their individual rights. However, in order for a citizen to do this, they have to understand what exactly their freedoms and rights are because if you are ignorant of your rights, then they can easily be taken away. People must be educated about the freedoms of which they are guaranteed simply because they have a beating heart. The people are the final check on tyranny. Jefferson even stated that you must “educate and inform the whole mass of the people….They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”[3]
You cannot rely on your schooling to educate you about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. It is something that you must study in depth on your own. Much like how the bible is the foundational text of Christianity, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is the foundational text of America. You must study them on your own. Discussing them with others will also help you gain a deeper understanding. But you cannot take your freedoms for granted because that is a sure way to lose them. These documents are something you must understand if you want to consider yourself a patriot, because “true patriotism is belief in the ideals that this nation was founded upon; it is not ignorance of them and unthinking, endless devotion to government”[4]
The Power of Words
Similar to most government documents of the time, the Bill of Rights is written in a way that can be difficult to understand for some people. One of the reasons for this is the diction that is used. When you do not understand the meaning of a word, you must interpret or guess its meaning. In school you are taught to “look for context clues”. At least for me, I was told to guess the meaning of the word instead of looking it up in a dictionary.
The founding fathers used the specific words in the Bill of Rights for a reason. They knew they were writing the foundational documents of a nation; it would be naïve to think they didn’t choose their words carefully. If you just guess what a word means, then you could be interpreting what was written in a way that is not as the Founding Fathers intended, you are distorting the writers meaning and inserting your own.
It is important to attempt to understand a text as close to the writers meaning as possible so that you are not distorting their meaning and inserting your own bias. This is one reason why it is so important to study arguments from perspectives different than your own. If you keep inserting your own bias, you create an echo chamber for yourself and don’t actually learn anything new or grow.
Conclusions
Understanding the freedoms and the natural rights that you have is the first step to being a sovereign individual in any nation. The next step is to have the cajones to defend that freedom no matter who is trying to take it from you. It is individual freedom and liberty that made western civilization the breadbasket of the world for the past few centuries. That is the reason why millions of immigrants have come to North America and Europe. The United States has had the same Constitution since it became effective in 1789, and there is a reason it hasn’t changed in almost a quarter of a century. It is up to individuals to educate themselves and others to ensure it stays this way.
In case you need a reminder of what the Bill of Rights is, here is a link to a 3 minute YouTube video about it.
Link to Crime and Punishment post as promised
https://jamesdforsythe.com/crime-and-punishment/
Here is a YouTube video of me going more in depth on my thoughts
[1] Quoted from The Know Your Bill of Rights Book by Sean Patrick pg. 3
[2] Ibid. pg. 4
[3] Ibid. pg. 5
[4] Ibid. pg. 5
