Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
Here's Ben, one of our Founding Fathers eloquently conveying the "fuck-off-I'm-free" attitude still alive in today's patriotic America. In essence, it's a somewhat oversimplistic quote that
1) acknowledges the intrinsic inverse relationship between freedom and security: if you've stocked up on one -- chances are you're fresh out of the other, and
2) steps pretty firmly on the side of freedom.
Fuck yeah! We're Americans, after all. Freedom is in our very blood; stamped onto our currency, into our parks, onto our stadiums... hell, it was even temporarily on our French Fries (possibly explaining how it got into our bloodstream to begin with). But that's how it is! We're the Official Land of the Free; every third-grader knows this by heart.
So my question would be: why then are we such a nation of slaves? Why, specifically, do 4 out of 5 Americans willingly serve someone they call a Lord & Master?
Perhaps I've slept through the day when the existence of God was proven and declared fact, but I've always thought that believing in a God is something done voluntarily. I mean who outside of a mental asylum has ever said "You know, I really wish this God being didn't exist and I'm really looking for a loophole to disprove him, but the evidence is just too overwhelming -- I can't deny the existence of this Lord"? Even those who have had "genuine" religious visions are about the thickness of an Occam's Razor away from dismissing them as hallucinations, coincidences, or figments of the imagination... if they really want to. But, as the famous poster illustrates, most believers want to believe.
Other things don't quite work that way. You can try to deny the existence of gravity but you'll still be in bad shape if you hop out of a 20 story window... no matter how much you wish it wasn't so. Reality is described as that which doesn't go away after you stop believing in it. But as soon as you decide you'd rather not have him in your life, God vanishes like a Stalinist kommissar. In short, God is real only as long as you want him to be.
Which brings me back to the original question: So why do so many freedom-loving Americans want there to be a God? The God most believe in limits freedom. God comes with religion... religion comes with rules... orders, commandments, and forbidden pleasures. Don't cut your hair, don't eat pork, don't have gay sex, don't work on Saturday, etc. etc. True, there are relatively few believers who take these restrictions seriously... but if only it were as simple as mere adherence to a collection of silly fraternity-style rituals and archaic no-nos! The saddest part is more a matter of principle than practice: believers willingly acknowledge themselves as slaves.
I remember playing music at a large Texas family wedding a few years back. The ceremony was, for the most part, traditional... much like I'd seen in most movies or on TV. But in the middle of it, something happened that was unlike any romantic comedy I've seen. A prayer to God was said (asking him to bless the marriage) and everyone in attendance fell to their knees... heads bowed. I was one of the few left standing, looking over the collection of grown men and women in pressed suits and fine dresses -- 21st century adults; teachers, bank tellers, managers, etc. all these grown-ups witnessing the union of two other adults who found their mates and made the decision to join together for life -- down on the floor, requesting the good graces of their chosen lord and master... God.
Had this been anyone but God (or perhaps his official press secretary the Pope), such a scene would never come to pass. Not in America. Can you imagine any President or foreign leader being addressed by a crowd on their hands and knees? We'd say "fuck that"; even our own elected leaders who have very real chain of commmand superiority over us would not get such subjugation from the American people: they're our leaders and our bosses, not our masters. Indeed the whole foundation of America sprang from the rejection of monarchy and the embrace of the self worth of the individual. It could even be said that we are Americans because we never have to neither bow nor kneel to any authority. Yes, we take orders. Yes, we follow commands. But we're no one's humble servants. According to our ideal principles, there is no single individual (no matter how socially superior) who is fundamentally worth more than we are.
Except for God. The one exception. God says "jump", we say "how high?"... God says "fuck off", we say "how hard?" Why do we obey? I get it -- believers think God has almighty power and has given them everything they've ever had and could take it away just as easily so they better do what he says -- but why believe in this Lord fellow to begin with?
Let's say you're a person who loves freedom. You love being an individual, you consider yourself strong and wise, and you don't like the idea of someone else telling you how to live. What would you do the first time someone came up to you and said "Say, I have a message from this powerful guy much stronger and wiser than you are! He will take you under his wing and watch out for you and all he asks is that you submit to him your entire being -- follow his rules and every so often beg him on your hands and knees"? Chances are you'd yell something along the lines of "THIS IS SPARTA!" and kick said messenger/evangelist down the nearest sewer manhole.
4 out of 5 of us wouldn't. We freedom-lovers could just say "You know, I think I'll manage without this Master... you don't even have any proof that the guy exists and could actually deliver on anything he's promising!" and continue with our free lifestyles. But 4 out of 5 of us don't. 4 out of 5 of us willingly embrace the guy. Why? Why why why why why?
Because what he's promising is just too damn good!
-- Justice in an unjust world? Sign me up! Good to know that the crooks who slip through our flawed legal systems will get their comeuppance and the good-hearted folks will get rewarded!
-- Miraculous help in trying times? Wow! Cancer can happen to anyone and we all feel alone sometimes... it's awesome that somebody can listen and help out when you need it most.
-- Immortality? Eternity in paradise?? Fuck yeah!! I mean death is scary... I wanna make sure that I'm taken care of after I kick off.
These are no small benefits in a chaotic world and if the only payments are a lifetime of subservience and groveling on your hands and knees, so be it. That's my stand! Are you in good hands?
4 out of 5 of us trade security for freedom. 4 out of 5 of us disagree with Ben Franklin. 4 out of every 5 individuals living in the Land of the Free are all too happy to surrender freedom in exchange for the knowledge that everything is going to be okay.
Now one could make a much longer and detailed case about how it may be no coincidence that conservatives in America are always touting themselves as the champions of freedom while embracing not only the Lord thy God but the PATRIOT Act and pre-emptive warfare with paranoid soccer moms displaying "Freedom Isn't Free" stickers on their SUVs while patriotic Congressmen belt out the UNDER GOD part of the Pledge of Allegiance on the Capitol steps... but someone else can take that one. My point is a simpler one: Belief in God is perhaps the ultimate trade of freedom for security and there is much irony in the frequency with which just that is regularly done in a country that not only prides itself on freedom of religion, but freedom in general.
Speaking of which -- Tomorrow is the 4th of July and it looks like it's going to be a great weekend. On Saturday, Americans will hold parties and barbecues, shoot fireworks and roll parades -- singing songs and beating chests about the precious birthrighted freedom that our forefathers have fought and died to ensure. On Sunday morning, Americans will be back on their knees begging for their master to deliver them from the fights and deaths of their own daily free existence.
God Less America!
