Freedom requires independent-minded people who also enjoy
helping others.
Not everyone in a free society has to fit this description, but
a majority certainly must.
The challenge is that freedom naturally leads to
advanced civilization, which naturally downplays independent-mindedness.
Thus
freedom has to be rekindled with every new generation.
"To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying 'Amen' to
what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have your soul kept alive."
So says Robert Louis Stevenson.
He's right. Free people know what they want, and they want
things that benefit themselves and also things that benefit society as a whole.
In fact, the most important things like happiness, freedom, peace, friendship,
integrity, prosperity and others are usually mutually beneficial.
Nowadays there are a lot of people telling you what you
should want, do and be, and another camp of loud voices telling us to do
whatever it takes to get yours even if it hurts a lot of people.
Neither side
of this argument gets it.
Freedom requires independent people who care deeply
about the independence and happiness of all.
Social Leader Daily by Oliver DeMille
