Happy Independence Day!

I’ve always loved this holiday. It’s up there with Thanksgiving and Halloween for me but with nicer weather.

This July 4th I want you to think about what liberty means to you because so much of the culture war that divides us in America boils down to this.

I understand liberty to mean: you don’t have to do what someone else is trying to impose on you. It is a sort of negative liberty.

Negative liberty is what the American colonists fought for in the War of Independence.

Nowadays, there are endless disputes about liberty even though they hide as hot-button topics such as

• Trans and LGBTQIA+ rights
• Global warming and what to do about it
• Abortion rights
• The right to bear arms
• The right to unfettered expression

There are heaps of minor disputes too, but since they work so well to put us up in arms against one another, they become bigger points of contention than they ought to. Think of what you might see on CNN or Fox News. They’re the flavor of outrage of the moment. The list of minor culture war disputes could never be exhaustive, so I won’t even start.

The minor disputes also have at heart our different definitions of liberty.

Our stances towards these hot-button issues, and the minor disputes of the moment lead us to group ourselves into tribes of like-minded groups. This identification manifests itself externally in silly ways like where we buy groceries, how we wear our hair, if we bike to work or drive, if we eat meat or not, what kinds of sports we like, where we go on vacation, the music we listen to, what car we drive, what we think about the police, and on and on.

There’s more than one America when you start considering all the tribes, and sometimes it feels like having several Americas would be better. If only you could discount the voices of people who weren’t like you, then everything would be easier.

I’ll get back to this later because it’s the beginning of a dangerous idea.

Now I want to mention the other definition of liberty, the positive kind. Positive liberty means you get to do whatever you want, and everyone else be damned.

Positive liberty is the argument of privilege. It invariably leads to abuses.

If one person can do whatever they want, then so can another. When two people want different things and feel entitled to get their way, they fight to impose their will over the other. This fight plays out most dangerously in the political arena because that’s where laws that affect large numbers of people are written.

Please look at the short list of hot-button topics above and ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you taking the positive or the negative view of liberty?
• Is someone trying to impose their beliefs onto your life?
• What are your beliefs, and where do they come from?
• What separates public and private life?
• Will you be in physical danger if you don’t get your way?
• Will other people be in physical danger if you do get your way?
• Should mental and emotional danger count as highly as physical danger?
• Is there another way we could accommodate differences in belief without endangering anyone?
• Should we consider animal welfare and the environment in our decisions? What weight should we give the needs of animals and the environment against those of humans?
• Who should advocate for animals and the environment?
• What about future human generations? Do they count? Do they count more than the present generation?
• What are the consequences if I am wrong?

For all of these questions, you will have your own answers. They may be different than the answers of your neighbor, friend, or family member.

Now, going back to the idea of discounting the values of people who disagree with you. It seems like an easy solution to all our disagreements.

But discounting other people, writing them off, and trying to cut them out of the political discussion grossly overvalues first-order consequences and discounts second and third-order consequences.

I mean to say, even if you were to succeed you’d be left with a less democratic society. And if your opponent didn’t give up the fight from the beginning they might try to do the same thing to you. Very quickly, trying to impose different values over the other becomes a life-or-death struggle.

It’s the kind of decision-making that leads people to start wars and makes them think they will be short and easy.

Independence, based on the ideal of negative liberty, is wonderful. But it is less valuable than Interdependence based on the same ideal.

To resolve our differences and live together, we need to have the ability to understand one another. We must pull away from identity politics and tribalism to explore the basic beliefs that influence our decisions.

It is naive to argue that we will arrive at the same conclusions if we ask ourselves the same questions.

But assuming we value democracy, equality, and negative liberty. If we assume our fellow citizens act in good faith. If we approach each other with respect and restraint. And if we listen to one another. I’m sure we can bridge many of the divides that keep us apart.

Deep breath.

Today is a day of celebration. Don’t get bogged down too much in philosophy and heavy thoughts. Go drink a beer, eat some corn on the cob, and spend time with your family and friends. But please do question yourself in the days to come about what liberty means to you.

Happy Fourth!