Freedom - Where Art Thou?

“What kind of world are we going to be living in?” A question posed by a college student to her father, a good friend. The question is indicative of a deep seated longing held for millenia. The longing is a desire to live out of deeply held beliefs, not just in the privacy of our own lives, but in a community of like believers; believers with the same social and moral values we personally hold. A community of believers that can provide support and affirmation and strength when the beliefs we hold are tested and we need the strength to hold firm to them.

There was a time when the world was small and societies developed in isolation from other cultures and their commonly held beliefs and ways of living were able to function and flourish and support the people who lived in them. Their fellow citizens supported them in their endeavor to live with integrity. But, the earth grew larger and societies began an intersection and interaction with each other. In this interaction conflict was brought on by differing, deeply held beliefs and values. Old Testament history is replete with stories of the Hebrew people and their attempt to live the ways of their God while intermingling with foreign peoples.  

Modern societies have grown and widely divergent cultures overlap. We can see in modern day nationalism a desire for countries to hold firm to their identities, identities that are composed of the deeply held beliefs and mores of their culture. Yet, our modern governments, especially the United States, strive to eliminate the differences between peoples of variously formed cultural identities. The ideal has become a homogeneous society in which cultural differences are discouraged and eliminated. People can no longer establish and nurture a community in which one can find support and affirmation in their beliefs and the free exercise of their values. Such communities, when adhering to values that are not widely accepted, find themselves belittled and labeled as bigoted and intolerant.

I hope I have not given an impression that I have suggestions to offer that would remedy this dilemma. The tendency for modern democracies to strive for equality in all things for all is gradually pulling communities apart. The desire people have to live with like-minded others in communities that are supportive of values held in common is gradually being denied. Here in the United States the founders thought that the system of a confederation of states, each with its own way of life, bound together by a few fundamental beliefs was the perfect answer. Yet, the homogenization of our culture by a Federal authority is relentlessly in progress; all for the sake of freedom to live the way such authority deems we should live.