Freedom Vs Honor

FREEDOM VERSUS HONOR
By Thomas Freedom

A very wise person once said that freedom only matters once you lose it. If that is true, then what is more important than freedom? The truth of the matter is that freedom only matters to slaves, people living in cages, because they are too dumb, scared, or timid to stand up for themselves. If the united states is already a free country then people would worry about honor more than freedom. To free people, honor is the greatest of all virtues, but to slaves, freedom is more important.

Today freedom has become a hot topic for everyone in the states. This month is the five year anniversary of the World Trade Center buildings coming down and on the anniversary several newspapers had headlines reading “FREEDOMS FADING?” or something similar. The truth of the matter is that freedom was gone a long time ago and our PRIVILEGES are what are starting to fade.

Recently, in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill outlawing the use of cell phones while driving. Many people said that this is good because it will make us safer but the real issue is whether you should be safe from some imaginary what if or if you would rather have the freedom to decide for yourself. Some would argue that it is a small issue, talking while driving, but that is how slaves are made… by trading freedom for security.

There are millions of laws like this and every day more are made. There are laws that say you can’t smoke in whole cities. It will be a short while before smoking is banned altogether just like alcohol was during prohibition. People are always fond of saying, “that’s ok because smoking is bad for you.” That is another example of trading freedom for security.

What if they outlawed eating meat in the USA? How well would that go over? What if they told you that more people died from cancer due to eating meat than those who die from smoking? According to the National Cancer Institute S.E.E.R. department it is true. They say 263,060 people will get digestive tract cancer in 2006 but only 186,370 people will get respiratory cancer. While they can’t exactly pinpoint what causes each specific case, (smog vs. smoking and meat vs. aspartame etc.) digestive cancer is almost 100% related to what you eat whereas smoking is harder to link directly to cigarettes, smog, asbestos, or other possible sources of irritation.

These are examples of people trading freedom for security. Second hand smoke is not going to kill you. It may have an affect on someone you might know, but is that worth your freedom? Is that worth being a slave? Is the fear of death worth being a slave? Should we all go and live in sterile cages because we are afraid of something that might be happening to someone, somewhere?

There is really no question as to whether our freedom is long gone or not. Is honor a real way to get that freedom back? I would argue that honor is not a way, but the only way, to get our freedom back. In addition, it is a definite way to go about opening our gilded cages.

What is the only way to keep people of power in check? There is the anarchist point of view that says that we don’t really need a government. While this may work for independent people it is no real solution for the masses of sheep who want someone telling them what to do. The only real way to go is to teach people to fully value and appreciate honor. What else will keep unchecked power in line? What else will keep dirty lawyers and politicians out of the white house? What else is a better goal to strive for?

Honor is so little understood by the average American that if you were to ask any person in the country whether or not they are honorable, they would say yes even though they lie, cheat, and steal at home and at work. It sounds like a good thing to say of yourself but very few people can even tell you what the true definition of honor is. The dictionary defines honor as: honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions. Under this definition a person could hijack a plane and fly it into a tower under religious pretenses and still be called honorable… and yet our very own president doesn’t meet this basic definition because he lied about WMDs in Iraq. Clinton lied before him about Monica, and Bush Sr. lied about the CIA, read my lips, and who knows what else.

The reason corrupt politicians can get away with these things is because voters don’t have those standards. Those who vote don’t hold themselves to any standard so how can they hold people of power to a high standard? They have no guide. When Clinton was impeached it was because the Republicans were attacking him, not because Americans were mad.

We must re-instill the idea of honor back into ALL people at all costs or we are doomed. All governments that have failed in the past (other than military takeover) have not done so because of errors in their system but rather because of dishonest practices. A loss of ethics caused Rome, the greatest empire ever known, to fall.

The ends-justify-the-means mentality used by people of power is an excuse not to be honorable in their actions. Everything from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Downing Street Memo to project MK-ultra and even the Bay of Pigs has used the excuse of the ends justifying the means. There are thousands of examples every year like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The ends never justify the means. Even when nobody gets hurt the ends don’t justify the means.

Honor is a goal reached by seven virtues. They are truth, courage, love, modesty, wisdom, justice, and charity. There are ninety two other ideas that have been associated with these but these seven are the most important. The problem with practicing honor is that the results are immediate but unseen until put into action. One virtue leads to another and they very quickly snowball.

Truth is not the most important virtue but it is the first one because it leads to the others and the others lead to it. Telling the truth is a good start but finding the truth is paramount. The average person does not know how to listen in silence so they will not hear the truth even when it is in front of them. You must start by listening in order to find the truth.

Courage is self reliance. It is taking action. It is an after thought when you understand honor. The American Indian’s highest symbol of courage was to touch his opponent in battle without dying… not to kill him. There are stories of warriors, in the height of battle touching a foe on the forehead, and that warrior, knowing he was beat, yielded and went home.

Wisdom takes patience, truth, and the ability to listen, three skills that very few people possess. It is no wonder only the very old were considered wise. People used to spend days and weeks trying to find the wisdom to solve a single problem.

Justice is having the courage to stand up to anyone no matter whom or what they are even when you are the only one. Justice is not possible without knowing the other things that constitute honor for how can you defend honor if you don’t know what it is.

Love is self control. It is the lack of hate towards people. It is the lack of lust and the ability to see a person for who they are, the way they think, and the things they do. Hating a person without loving them is blind, uneducated hate and leads to defeat.

Modesty is an extremely important virtue because it excludes greed which excludes hate and promotes love and justice. Modesty means using only what you need. Modesty means not buy five pounds of corn when you can only eat four. It means not having two cars when you need only one.

Charity is the last virtue because only when you understand the rest will you be able to enjoy charity. This is what makes a person have great character, color, and personality. The opposite would be thinking a new car makes you look cool. Charity makes the whole world better but it should start with those closest to you.

With all of the work and study needed to master these things it is no wonder people started to take the easy way out by just ignoring them. To learn these virtues that lead to honor a method of practicing one virtue a week can be employed. This will familiarize people with the long forgotten concept of honor, the most noble of all skills.

There used to be the idea that the journey was the important part of a trip, not the destination. Today we don’t want the trip at all; we just want to be there, in our perfect little world waiting for the end. The perfect world, however, may just be the journey, not the destination. Life is a journey after all and death is the arrival.