“Whenever one object exerts force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite on the first.”
Isaac Newton
To the chagrin of many, Newton’s law of motion seems to apply equally well when speaking about people. Masked in the anonymity of social media, it is believed that one can say or do whatsoever one pleases without consequence. That, my friends, is not how freedom works.
There is not a single act of freedom that does not entail a price. Jesus cautioned his followers to weigh the cost of discipleship before casting their lot in with him. The amount of his teaching lost on today’s world is unfortunate.
I shoot my mouth off on this blog with regularity. Sometimes I do it on purpose just to elicit a response, other times that’s just me shooting my mouth off because I tend to do that. I never do it unprepared for what it might cost me to give voice to my opinions.
If I have a saving grace, (hey, there might be one) it is that I allow everyone else the same privilege—for the same price. There’s nothing free about freedom, but you need not go that far, you can stop with a simple, there’s nothing free.
Every act of freedom, every free choice we make connects to an equal force that would hinder our liberty. Freedom doesn’t only affect the person exercising it. It triggers those who disagree with or oppose that choice to adopt tacit consent or take up active opposition. Action and reaction, if you’ve used Facebook or Twitter, you know how that works.
I’m all for people expressing their opinions, even those I disagree with. I publish books for people expressing views opposed to mine—which costs me at times, but I am not opposed to paying the price for the freedom to publish what I will.
Just about every Memorial Day I take a walk through a military cemetery. I’ve yet to run upon a name I know. It doesn’t matter, I am equally indebted to every person lying there for paying the cost of my freedom. God forbid that I should hide the freedom they died for, or silence it to soothe the feelings of the ungrateful.
In growing numbers, Americans are setting aside their freedom—just another commodity that has grown too expensive. It is so much easier and cheaper to shut up, mask up, and put up with the lunatic fringe peddling a new normal on television and computer screens than to be called names.
There is no reason to stand on the outside looking in. Step inside, and take the mantle of freedom off the rack, and wrap it around you—just remember you have to pay for it on your way out the door.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
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