All of life is a struggle.
Achieving high ideals demands teeth-gritting pain, sadness and loss. It may take generations to embody the values on which a nation is founded. And once embodied, they perpetually threaten to slip away.
The Declaration of Independence states that all humans are created equal. We are still in the process of finding out what we must do to honor this principle. Does "equal" mean providing the same opportunities for everyone or guarantying the same outcomes? What does treating every person as on a par with us require?
The Declaration also says that all humans have a right to life. We can easily agree that the nation has to be secure and that individuals must be safe in their homes and on the street. But does the right to life mean that we can’t execute heinous criminals? And does the protection of persons extend to the womb? Our struggles with these issues teach that there are no easy answers.
The freedom to do as we please, so long as we don’t harm others, has been one of the mightiest ideals in human history. Millions died trying to attain or to protect it. It is so powerful that people are willing to sacrifice themselves even today so others may enjoy its blessings. Yet often it is unclear how far liberty should extend. Should people be free to flout social conventions? Should they be allowed to take their own lives?
Over the years, we have also learned the catch-22 of liberty. People can exercise their freedom only in a well-ordered society, but every law and regulation is a restriction of liberty. Balancing the claims of order and freedom is an endless struggle in which freedom rarely wins.
Wisely, the Declaration speaks not of the right to happiness but only to its pursuit. We don’t mind letting people seek their happiness in what may seem odd and distorted ways. But we also set limits to the search: many campaign against gay marriage and even consensual polygamy evokes a harsh response from the government.
We haven’t decided how far the state should go in aiding the pursuit of happiness. Unemployment insurance and social security are supposed to relieve us of the danger of financial disaster. But we also turn to the Federal Government for protection from the consequences of hurricanes and of poor mortgage decisions.The problem here is that the more government shields us, the less energetically we seek our own good.
Do we hold true to the great principles of the Declaration of Independence? We clearly try. But principles are hard to apply to life. Sometimes they get in each other’s way. And, perversely, the best intentions often yield opposite results.
So we struggle to live up to our highest principles, to be ourselves. The best measure of our success is not what we do right, but how far we have come. And especially how devoted we are to continuing.
[John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University. This op-ed was originally published in The Tennessean on July 4.]
Media Contact: Amy Wolf, (615) 322-NEWS
amy.wolf@vanderbilt.edu