Wisdom From the Founders: Ignorance and Freedom

Ignorance and freedom are mutually exclusive concepts

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”—Thomas Jefferson

Another brilliant quote from Jefferson. First of all, to be “free,” a people need to know what “freedom” is and, more importantly, where it comes from. Licentiousness is not freedom, yet that is what the Left, in the guise of the Democratic Party, is trying to teach American today. As Edmund Burke so wisely pointed out, “It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” People aren’t “free” if they can’t control their own passions and lusts; they are enslaved by them, and will eventually be destroyed by such.

Freedom comes from God, Who is the source of all things. “All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” That is from the American Declaration of Independence, of course, written by Thomas Jefferson. Notice that the “Creator” “endowed” us with certain rights, and one of those is “Liberty.” Freedom comes from God. He defines it, tells us how to obtain it, the restrictions thereon, and how to keep it. The less we know about this freedom (“ignorance” in the Jeffersonian quote above), the less chance we have of obtaining freedom, or being “in a state of civilization.” Barbarians—defined as those who live selfish, uncivilized, unvirtuous, ungodly lives, cause others to live in fear. Those who live in fear do not live in freedom.

Thus, Jefferson is 100% accurate. No society ignorant of the true Source and nature of freedom, has been, or ever will be, truly free. It is absolutely no surprise, to the wise, that the farther America, and the world, has moved away from God, the more barbaric, and less free, people have become. They don’t know God. Thus, they won’t have freedom.