Freedom and moral truth

Carol Iannone discusses the real meaning of freedom in the Declaration of Independence, as realized by the protaganist of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town on the Prairie.

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Russell writes:

Wow! What a wonderful passage. It’s so simple and highlights so well what’s lacking in the modern worldview.

I quoted it to someone and she responded with the following:

“Freedom is precious, worth dying for, we believe. But it is possible for freedom to become a fetish. The founders of this country were lovers of liberty, but they did not place liberty at the apex of desirables. That spot was saved for virtue.

“And the founders would have been amazed, it is safe to say, to see their documents interpreted as license for the sort of degrading, conscience-killing, soul-destroying stuff with which we regularly entertain ourselves.”

Turns out that was from a Mona Charen article from 1999.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 04, 2006 01:20 PM | Send