For Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Part 2)
The Neothink Society · Governance · June 2009
The self-led men and women of the Neothink Society build lives on three values: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No authority grants them and none can honestly take them. Where they are defended, lives thrive. Where they are traded away for order or comfort, both are lost.
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King stood before a crowd of black and white men and women and named the broken promise at the center of the republic:
"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
"It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.' But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."
"We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children."
"But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."
Soul force. Dignity over bitterness is the discipline that carries genuine progress; force only sustains control and never produces a free life.
The promise of the founding documents is not a sentiment; it is a claim on a debt that justice is owed. And the means King insisted on, soul force over physical force, dignity over bitterness, is the same principle that runs through all genuine progress. Force only sustains control; it never produces a free life.
The pattern that defeats those values is always the same: ruling power that sustains itself through coercion rather than consent, treating people as something to be governed rather than as the rightful owners of their own lives. Wherever that power rises, free people are pressed beneath political control. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness cannot survive where ruling power is sustained by force.
Liberty is the precondition for a life of value creation, prosperity, and abiding happiness, and any power sustained by force forecloses all three.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the framers of the country, stated the cost of keeping these values plainly:
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
"Liberty is the great parent of science and virtue; a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free."
"A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither."
Samuel Adams drew the line with no room left for hedging:
"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Trade refused. A people that trades a little liberty for a little order loses both, which is why the self-led keep freedom whole.
The line Adams drew is the line every self-led person eventually stands on. Freedom is the precondition for a life of value creation, prosperity, and abiding happiness; servitude, however comfortable, forecloses all three. The work of holding these values is constant, carried by individuals who refuse to surrender their freedom for comfort. This is how the Neothink Society lives: self-led, free to create value, accountable to no one's permission.
Common Questions
What are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? They are the three values a self-led life is built on: the right to one's own existence, the freedom to direct it, and the open pursuit of the things that make it worth living. No authority grants them and none can honestly take them. Where they are defended, lives thrive.
How is liberty different from order? Order is a condition that authority can impose; liberty is the freedom of individuals to direct their own lives. The two are often offered as a trade, a little liberty for a little order, but a society that accepts that trade loses both and deserves neither. Liberty is not a luxury that order can replace.
Why is liberty the precondition for the other two values? A life of value creation and abiding happiness can only be built by someone free to choose, build, and keep what they make. Strip away liberty and life becomes something administered rather than lived, and happiness becomes whatever a ruling power permits. Liberty comes first because the other two are built on top of it.
What is soul force, and how does it differ from physical force? Soul force is the discipline of advancing through dignity, conviction, and moral pressure rather than violence, the principle Martin Luther King insisted on in 1963. Physical force compels by coercion and can only sustain control. Soul force persuades and builds, and it is the means by which genuine progress holds.
What is rule by force, and why does it threaten these values? Rule by force is ruling power that sustains itself through coercion rather than the consent of the people it governs, treating them as subjects rather than as the owners of their own lives. Wherever it rises, free people are pressed beneath political control, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness cannot survive it.
How do these values connect to self-leadership? Self-leadership is the daily practice of holding these values: directing one's own life, creating value without waiting for permission, and refusing to surrender freedom for comfort. The three values are the ground, and self-leadership is how a person stands on it.
Further Reading
- Self-leadership: the daily practice of directing your own life and creating value without permission.
- Value creation: why freedom is the precondition for building a life of prosperity and worth.
- Rule by force: how ruling power sustained by coercion forecloses the three values.
- Consent of the governed: the alternative to coercion and the basis of legitimate order.
- The pursuit of happiness: the open pursuit of what makes a life worth living, defended as a value rather than a reward.
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