Been thinking alot

I’ve been reading Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg lately. I highly recommend the book because it has really been making me think. Mostly about what freedom and liberty really is.

I’ve also taken a job as a public defender, which I am really enjoying and trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am defending the people that a few years ago would have had a problem defending. You know the guilty ones. (The innocent ones I don’t have a problem defending, never did).

The thing is I feel as though everything I’ve gone through lately, and these new experiences are changing my world view. I am not sure what they are changing them too. Definitely not becoming a liberal, progressive, fascist, communist, whatever you want to call the left. Because I see how easy it is for government to be corrupted and people to abuse power.

 So yeah I’ve been thinking alot about freedom, liberty, but also power and the nature of it. The Founders set up the Federal government the way they did because they did understand power. The fact is absolute power corrupts absolutely. But where exactly is that line where government cannot and should not cross? I don’t know anymore. I am definitely more inclined allowing more freedom, but I also know anarchy arise out of it and anarchy is one of the antithesis of freedom.

One thing I am convinced of more and more is that no system of government is perfect. That is why you need to have honest and moral people in order to maintain freedom. Because without honest and moral people in power, those who are in power will use any means necessary to not only abuse their current power but obtain more power than they were originally given.

Joseph Smith was once asked how he governed such a great amount of people. He responded “I teach them true principles and they govern themselves.” Self-government is the key to freedom. That means we need to take personal responsibility for our actions. That means we do have to choose to live moral lives. We determine our destinies, not anyone else. Sure life can throw us curve balls, but its our choices that determine whether we hit them out of the park or not.

If all of us don’t return to principles of self government, we we see oppression and bloodshed at an unheard of scale. That may sound crazy, but I know it’s as true as much as I know the sun will rise in the morning. I don’t want to fall to that.