Pollyanna Freedom

Recently on social media, a friend of mine who is a Trump Republican, called my libertarian views and solutions “Pollyanna.” I responded that freedom isn’t Pollyanna. One of the problems I see is that freedom is scary. It is full of risks. Our natural inclination is to control risk, so we build safety nets and walls, start wars elsewhere, and imprison anyone who does not conform to our version of morality.

However, history shows that our misguided, though sincere, efforts often lead to worse problems. We create winners and losers, pockets of power (monopolies), and divide people rather than unite them.

Government’s only role is to protect our inalienable rights:: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Nothing else. Why is that Pollyanna thinking? Because it isn’t complex? Because it doesn’t demand layers of bureaucracy?

It is all about fear. People fear risk. Yet without risk (freedom), people and nations cannot grow and enrich themselves. The same free market that made America, now has made a 1/2 billion people middle class in China.

With control, there is always a desire for greater control, an endless craving. Because controlling economies and people creates new negative events that then must be dealt with. Only freedom can bring the best results consistently

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About rameumptom

Gerald (Rameumptom) Smith is a student of the gospel. Joining the Church of Jesus Christ when he was 16, he served a mission in Santa Cruz Bolivia (1978=1980). He is married to Ramona, has 3 stepchildren and 7 grandchildren. Retired Air Force (Aim High!). He has been on the Internet since 1986 when only colleges and military were online. Gerald has defended the gospel since the 1980s, and was on the first Latter-Day Saint email lists, including the late Bill Hamblin's Morm-Ant. Gerald has worked with FairMormon, More Good Foundation, LDS.Net and other pro-LDS online groups. He has blogged on the scriptures for over a decade at his site: Joel's Monastery (joelsmonastery.blogspot.com). He has the following degrees: AAS Computer Management, BS Resource Mgmt, MA Teaching/History. Gerald was the leader for the Tuskegee Alabama group, prior to it becoming a branch. He opened the door for missionary work to African Americans in Montgomery Alabama in the 1980s. He's served in two bishoprics, stake clerk, high council, HP group leader and several other callings over the years. While on his mission, he served as a counselor in a branch Relief Society presidency.

4 thoughts on “Pollyanna Freedom

  1. I find that people shy away from libertarian angles because they take work at the local level. Being required to get to know your neighbors and be active in your community–what a drag when you can just put everything on autopilot via the government. The police won’t ever come to *your* door, so you can criminalize your neighbors’ behavior at will.

    At the end of the day, though, it comes to this for me: I want the freedom to live (and worship) according to the dictates of my own conscience. I cannot demand that privilege without extending it to others.

  2. Libertarians seem to believe that men are naturally good and that, left to their own devices, they will be disciplined, productive, and happy. That is contrary to all human experience.

  3. As some scripture authors and the US founding fathers wrote: only a righteous people can be free. Unrighteousness begets and invites tyranny.

    2 Corinthians 3:17; … where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

    “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams.
    https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_adams_391045

    Solzhenitsyn on the main cause of the Russian revolution that created the Soviet Union: “Men have forgotten God”
    http://orthochristian.com/47643.html

    Look at the places where there is the least freedom and most misery: Atheist countries, and places known for corruption/unrighteousness among either the leadership or the populace. (Piousness and practice of a religion is not the same as general righteousness.)

    The US has sunk a lot in the last 60 years. We are setting ourselves up for a tremendous loss of freedom, and an increase in misery.

  4. No, we believe that some are good and some bad. We know that evil people love government, because they can rule over others with impunity. There is a role for limited government: to protect us from other’s harm and protect the free market.

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