Freedom’s Truth: Reality and Responsibility
Liberty and the American Idea is a writing project that includes this blog, a forthcoming book, and the development of additional resources. The blog also appears on Facebook, where more than 2600 readers are following.
The project is exploring the meaning of freedom and responsibility in American history and culture, and addresses the immense challenges currently confronting the American people. It is a response to a decades-long deterioration of social and economic conditions in the United States, to the growing antipathy, divisiveness, and loss of civility among Americans, and to the loss of integrity and self-reliance in the American character.
Without partisan posturing or polemic, the book brings together the history of ideas influencing the United States with a strategic proposal for bringing us through a long night of hardship and into a future we can believe in. A pragmatic approach to healing and reconstruction is offered, which transcends political divisions and proposes a path forward to inspire and engage every citizen.
With insights into how personal freedom and empowerment can be realized despite the obstacles we face, and how our ability to live and work with our neighbors depends on our own self-confidence and discipline, it proposes a direct path to long-term stability and honorable prosperity.
After briefly outlining the complexity of the challenges before us, the first half of the book offers wide-ranging consideration of the historical perceptions and ways of thinking that will influence any effort to strengthen the foundations for a truly American future we can respect and believe in.
A strategic approach is then presented in the second half of the book which responds directly to the growing disorder we can expect from multiple oncoming crises. Americans are encouraged to rise above our differences to the extent necessary to ensure safety and ensuring access to essential needs in our local communities.
Rational attention to resolving local problems and meeting shared needs will necessarily lead to functional civility, allowing us to engage rationally. Only in this way can we come to understand and influence one another meaningfully.
This strategy is outlined briefly in the Introduction to the book, (linked at the top of this page), and developed fully in the book. The project will include developing practical resources for strong, well-organized American communities.
Until the book is published, most blog posts will be adapted from the manuscript. At the top of this page, several full chapters are made available in draft, as well as a tentative Table of Contents. Thoughtful responses from readers, and dialog among readers, will be welcomed and greatly appreciated. Rules of engagement are posted at the bottom of the homepage.
