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A Free Nation is a Peaceful Nation? Email Print

By ColdFusion04
11/30/2005 09:44:32 PM EST

This morning it came across the airwaves once again - the same phrase I've heard dozens of times in the past few months.  And each time I heard it, it breezed through me, without registering as untrue or unusual or incorrect:

"A Free Nation is a Peaceful Nation".  A Free Nation is a Peaceful Nation.

It's generally an agreeable concept, to be sure.  But is it true?  If free nations are peaceful nations, then how does our President explain the actions of his own country?  After all, the United States of America, the patented Land of the Free, has spent most of the past century at war with someone or something.  The current target is something called terra or someone called evildoers, depending on the month, but history seems to indicate that if it wasn't this enemy, it would be some other.  A War on Saltwater or a War on Chicken farming or a War on War.  Whatever the case, the United States does not have a peaceful recent history.

So given this notable exception to an otherwise agreeable rule, one of two things must be true.  Either the statement is false, or the United States is not a free nation.

After much thought, I don't believe the statement itself is false.  Most free nations are generally peaceful nations.  Canada hasn't had a war in decades.  Mexico stays pretty much at peace.  Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, France, Spain, heck - even Germany since the 40s.  Of course, there are exceptions... The British Empire started under the guise of freedom, and even pre-Nazi Germany had a semblance of Democracy.  But as a general rule, Bush's statement has been proven true over the past fifty years.

So what about the second part of the formula?  Is the United States, one of the most notable exceptions to the rule, truly free?  

Let me explain.  Using the rules of logic, a Free Nation (A) is a Peaceful Nation (B).  But over the course of the past 100 years, and more specifically the past 5 years, the United States (C) has not proven itself to be a Peaceful Nation (B).  

A=B
B!=C

Therefore, A!=C.  That's right: A Free Nation (A) is not equal to The United States (C).

By the President's own hastily tossed definition, we are not truly free.  Oh certainly we're still mostly free to speak our minds and own property and engage in the mostly platitude-based façade of daily life, but we are not free.  And it is exactly those chains - Chains of fear and corporate greed and escapism and inability to talk to each other and on and on - it is those very chains that keep us from peace.  Peace with each other, and peace with the world around us.

A Free Nation is a Peaceful Nation?  I'm afraid that's a true statement.  I'm just afraid that we don't meet the criteria.  Or perhaps it's missing a word.  Perhaps it should read:

A Truly Free Nation is a Peaceful Nation.


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A Free Nation is a Peaceful Nation? | 1 comment (1 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
We have the facade of freedom ... (none / 0)
and that seems to be enough for most people, leading their superficial lives. It's all surface here.

One thing that is beginning to nag at me is how many  progressives (including me) have long believed the solution to this "trues freedom" thing lie in the political realm. Certainly, laws and policies can be adopted that foster true and thorough freedom for individuals, but I'm becoming less certain as time goes by whether the full solution is political.

For example, when you state: And it is exactly those chains - Chains of fear and corporate greed and escapism and inability to talk to each other and on and on - it is those very chains that keep us from peace., I'm not sure that some of those issues (which I agree wholeheartedly exist) can be addressed on a political level, at least directly. The American tendency toward escapsim and inability to connect with others (and rampant individualism) seems to me to be more of a cultural than a political issue.

Thinking these problems can be solved if the ideal political ideology is implemented (everyone is paid a living wage, there is health care for all, there are strict limitations on corporate behavior) seems like something stoned freshmen in dorm rooms would advocate.

I think are systemic problems are much deeper, much more individualistic and much more complex than political activists often admit. The problem lies with the culture in general, and cultures/belief systems are stubborn things and resistant to immediate change. Nudging them toward social responsbility and communitarianism on a broad level is the work of decades and generations, and often takes place outside of politics (in novels, movies, music, etc.).

Anyway, great post. The freedom equation is very thought-provoking (as you can see by my long comment).

by SusanG on 12/02/2005 11:03:00 AM EST

A Free Nation is a Peaceful Nation? | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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