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9. But It Couldn't Happen Here,
Or Could
It?
Is it possible that liberty itself has eroded our
understanding of freedom? Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the
Russian dissident, upon the occasion of receiving the
American Friendship Award from the Freedoms
Foundation, had these harsh but necessary words for
Americans:
I boldly direct your attention to some aspects
offreedom that are not fashionable to talk about
--
freedom to put commercial rubbish in
mailboxes and telecasts
. . .
freedom of editors
to seduce younger generations with their
miscreations
. . .
freedom of adolescent to
immerse themselves in idleness instead of
invigorating tasks
...
freedom for healthy adults
to avoid work and live at the expense ofsociety
...
freedom for politicians to please voters today
but not farsightedly providing for his safety and
well-being
. . .
freedom of indifference to a
distant alien trampled freedom
...
freedom even
to not defend
one~
own freedom
...
Mr. Solzhenitsyn concluded,
"Genuinely human
freedom is inner freedom, ·given to us by God: freedom
to decide upon our own acts as well as moral
responsibility for them
--
that which was called in an
age-old, and now quaint, word
--
honor.
"
.•
Are there some clearly defined stages through which
we evolved in the 20th Century? Again, the answer is,
'yes'~
Our redistributive society has evolved through
three stages. First, we taxed the wealthy, steal_ing from
the rich. Second, through deficit spending and inflation,
we used unbalanced red-ink budgets to steal purchasing
power from the middle class.
Third, through
overconsumption caused by producing less and
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