Defining Freedom, Reasonably

GOVERNOR ABBOT OF TEXAS has reversed course, expediently.Not so long ago, says, several days, he was among the staunchest of staunch defenders of individual liberty. No local government in Texas, said he, had the constitutional right to order American citizens to wear face masks. Now, he himself is so ordering, Texas wide, as the great American epidemic spirals out of control, consuming the country, reducing its arrogance to ashes. Vice President Pence recently asserted, in the face of increasing numbers of sick and dying Americans, that we still have our first amendment rights of assembly and speech, notwithstanding the current inadvisability of gathering together and freely peaceably assembling in large numbers inside buildings. The V.P. is evidently willing to die, and to see others die, from a disease they need not encounter, if only they will suspend their freedom of assembly for a short time. He would die with the constitution clutched in his dead hand. Freedom, said the great German writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is nothing other than the opportunity to do what is reasonable under all circumstances. If ever there were a better definition, show me. This epidemic, and for that matter this racial strife, is the result of nothing other than our vaunted American zealous defense of individual rights, and our refusal to change, or to compromise those liberties in the face of extreme circumstances. Resistance to gun control is not about owning guns. It is about our refusal to be told by anyone at any time that we are not allowed to own them, our refusal to surrender even our freedom to behave unreasonably.. Resistance to mask wearing, and the assertion of our freedom not to, isn't about wearing masks, its about our stubborn, arrogant refusal to cooperate with society and to allow ourselves to be told to wear them, for public safety. everyone cherishes freedom. But freedom is not an absolute value, just as free speech is not absolute, it is placed in context with circumstance, and the needs of society. Freedom is closely associated with reason, without which freedom is nothing other than meaningless chaos.