The Difference Between Liberty and License

I don't think that many people give it much thought, the difference between liberty and license.  Who cares?  Who has any time or interest to think about that stuff anyway?  Could it even be important?  There is so much Instagramming and FaceBooking to do.  

What we are in the midst of like never before in these United States is the exchanging of our liberties for licenses.  Notice the word "license" is completely absent from both the preamble of the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Do you suppose that is just a coincidence or is there any reason it was written specifically this way?  I'll give you a clue, the Revolutionary War was not fought for the privileges license conditionally give us.  We rebelled against England for liberty.

The key is in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights...

A liberty is an "unalienable right".  Liberty is a right given by our Creator, not a license issued by a government.  Is the light beginning to come on?

We go to the state to get a license to drive a car.  We have been told that driving is a privilege not a right.  So, if we pay the fees, obey the rules we can have a license to drive a vehicle.  If we don't pay the fees, or break the rules of driving, our license gets revoked.  That is the way license works.  The state has authority to grant or un-grant a privilege with license.  

If our Creator gave us a right to liberty that means a government cannot take it away.  A government has no say in our liberty.  Liberties like, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of the press, and all of our liberties, we have heretofore enjoyed without much government interference.

Governments want us to willingly exchange our liberties for their licenses so they may control our ability to do the things we now have freedom to do.  Many things that once were truly liberties are really no longer liberties but licenses.  We barely notice the difference because at present, we continue to do many of the same things we have always done.

Over time, the "frog in the kettle" effect takes place.  Because we don't recognize the difference between liberty and license the "heat" in the form of increased restrictions, compliance, regulation over what was once unrestricted and unregulated is increased.  We accept this as it is done so slowly and incrementally that we do not rebel while our liberty has been taken away and in its place a license has been issued.

A license says "you cannot do what you want to do unless you have permission from government."  Remember what the state giveth, the state can take away.  If liberty is given by the Creator, the state can't take it away unless we allow it to be taken away.

The state never gives new freedoms, it does find ways to create new licenses.  We feel all tickled by the misinformation that tells us we have new freedoms.  This is the flaw in most Libertarian thinking in my opinion.  Libertarians tend to think, if the people vote for it, make it legal then let the people do it.  This never results in liberty, only license. 

Our freedom of worship has some license already attached to it.  Churches willingly allowed government to establish the "Johnson Amendment" in 1954.  It says in exchange for being "tax exempt" (something the church already was), the church could no longer endorse or promote political candidates.  Boom.  It was the means that then senator Lynden Baynes Johnson (the future president) shut up some of his political foes who happened to be pastors of churches.  With one amendment, the liberty of freedom of worship was turned to license.  As long as churches don't get involved in politics (now accepted as orthodoxy by most Americans) the government will leave you alone.  Start making political waves and the government will fine you, tax you and regulate you like a business if you survive the process. 

Take the euphoria expressed in the states that recently "legalized" marijuana.  If marijuana was a liberty, you wouldn't have to legalize it,  you could grow it, exchange it, use it at will without government interference.  You still can't do that, oh, you must purchase a license.  You pay for the privilege.  You promise to do it the way government says to do it and agree to continue to comply with whatever other regulations they come up with.

Liberty isn't regulated.  Liberty ceases to be liberty when it is regulated.  Our founders declared that in the United States speech should not be regulated.  The press should not be regulated.  Our worship should not be regulated.  Do we see these liberties slipping away toward license?  

China is one example.  You can worship openly in China as long as you do so in a "government  sanctioned church", one that has been approved and granted a license, one that will not have anything negative to say about their government or whatever else they deem objectionable.  If the church gets too independent, their license is taken away, church leaders arrested and the church disbanded.  Not liberty, not freedom at all, that is license my friend.

So, in our era of "big government", making abridgments to our liberties in the name of "the public good", increased oversight by government agencies, our privacy invaded, understand the government is bent on taking the place of our Creator, doing away with the Creators' liberties, counterfeiting them and taking control of them through license.

Makes you wonder why the state grants "marriage licenses" anyway.   If you have children you might be more than a little surprised by what you agreed to by signing your marriage license.  Probably more than a little surprised.

I hope you now see, and I hope understand the difference between liberty and license.  Now go ponder the difference between justice and fairness.