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Special Report
The Olympics: Freedom Adrift
The force behind Bond, Potter, the Beatles; Of murdered Israeli athletes and the banned Greek.
(Page 2 of 3)
Which is to say, using freedom to pursue their dreams and talents.
There’s nothing new in all of this. And one does not have to be the author of the Harry Potter series or a Beatle to have benefitted.
Freedom has been directly under assault down through the ages.
Certainly it is safe to say, speaking of Brits, that the small interlude in history that we know as the American Revolution — launched in part by those original tea partiers in Boston — was nothing if not a war for freedom. So too was the Civil War and the divide over slavery a continuation of that American war for freedom. In the 20th century alone freedom had to fight off wars hot and Cold against German Nazis, Italian Fascists, the Japanese Empire, and the Communist Soviet Union as well as Communist North Korea and its Chinese ally — all designed to exterminate freedom. Let’s not forget Vietnam. Today Islamic Supremacists reject freedom because they want the world to bow down to the totalitarian strictures of sharia.
Towards the end of 2009, the first in the Age of Obama, National Review’s Jonah Goldberg wrote a wonderfully perceptive piece on the influence of Richard Ely, the late 19th-century American academic who served, in Goldberg’s words, “as a mentor to or major influence on many of the most important progressive thinkers and activists” of the early 20th century. That group including, among others, Woodrow Wilson, Robert La Follette and Theodore Roosevelt. Goldberg pointed out the obvious: that while Ely is mostly unknown today, his influence on what Americans know as the “progressive movement” is still palpable today.
Goldberg wrote:
The irony here is that the supposedly more authentically American tradition of reform also has a heavily European lineage. Indeed, American progressives saw themselves as the U.S. franchisees of an international effort. “We were parts, one of another, in the United States and Europe,” proclaimed William Allen White. “Something was welding us into one social and economic whole with local political variations.”
By “local variations” of progressives White meant local as in places as near as his native Kansas and as far afield as the Socialists of France, Germany, Belgium, and Holland. Which is to say, Europe — precisely the place where freedom had already had a tough go of it with such small moments as the French Revolution and Napoleon, not to mention what loomed with two world wars and Communism.
And as was true of their philosophical ancestors in the days of the French Revolution, Nazis, Fascists, and Communists — anti-freedom movements one and all — progressives and Leftists today, whether in Europe or America, reject the American concept of freedom. Why? Because they believe in a world that is run somewhere along the yard stick of leftism from Richard Ely’s top down “coercive philanthropy” to Marx’s world of hardline class warfare.
Or, as Goldberg put it succinctly, these are people who believe that “if experts can glean which way social betterment lies, who is the individual to object?”
A better description of, say, Obamacare could not be found.
Which brings us back to the Olympics and what we actually saw with our own eyes in that Opening Ceremony:
The vivid contradiction of freedom stunningly on display, the consequences of an enemy that will boldly murder Olympians to extinguish freedom, and the creepy — and creeping- anti-freedom censorship of the Greek Olympic Committee callously snuffing out an athlete’s chance at Olympic medals in the name of political correctness.
Decades ago, Whittaker Chambers wrote of an epiphany had during one of his darker moments in his struggle to confront Communism. Chambers wrote:
In those days, I often moved about or performed tasks more or less blindly from habit, while my mind was occupied with its mortal debate. One day as I came down the stairs in the Mount Royal Terrace house [the Baltimore home where he lived with his family], the question of the impossible return struck me with sudden sharpness. I thought: “You cannot do it. No one can go back.” [To freedom from Communism.] As I stepped down into the dark hall, I found myself stopped, not by a constraint, but by a hush of my whole being. In this organic hush, a voice said with perfect distinctness: “If you will fight for freedom, all will be well with you.” The words are nothing. Perhaps there were no words, only an uttered meaning to which my mind supplied the words. What was there was the sense that, like me, time and the world stood still, an awareness of God as an envelopment, holding me in silent assurance and untroubled peace. There was a sense that in that moment I gave my promise, not with the mind, but with my whole being, and that this was a covenant that I might not break.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (17) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Jeffrey Lord
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Appleby| 7.31.12 @ 6:44AM
Oh, was that what the Opening Ceremonies was "about"? I thought it was a desperate attempt to find something that the world wide audience had in common, without "offending" anybody.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.31.12 @ 12:38PM
"and John, Paul, George, and Ringo the complete freedom to conjure and amaze audiences with their respective literary and musical creations."
Beatles are pretty liberal for you guys: they took drugs, had leftist politics, wild sex, wild music.
Paul McGrath| 7.31.12 @ 2:40PM
The point is, they were free to do so.
And if you don't think conservatives do not or have never enjoyed, "wild music, wild sex and drugs," you are laughably uninformed.
Skippy| 7.31.12 @ 4:26PM
We don't hate the Beatles.
Just you.
btims86| 7.31.12 @ 6:57AM
It was the most embarassing opening ceremoney I've ever seen.....then again, I haven't seen the Olympics in at least 15 years. It's 99% total feel-good, human interest, tear-jerker crap.
Dodd2| 7.31.12 @ 7:30AM
So Mr. Lord, enlighten us.. Just what was so tasteless about Greek Olympian Voula Papachristou tweet?
Or in your politically correct mindset, should one merely keep their head in the sand as their country gets overrun by Third Worlders and not say a peep?
TLP| 7.31.12 @ 8:15AM
And, there you have it.
Why would they "Celebrate Freedom" in a Country that doesn't have any?
I know they don't have Freedom of Speech, and they can't own a Firearm to Protect their Families from any Stray Jihadist that might wander in from Londanistan. And, I'm not sure if they are Free to Assemble, unless their faces look like the back end of a Goat, they have Sex with their Dead Wives, or they like to bury their Women up to their necks, when starting a Rock Garden at their Flat.
They did Celebrate their Free Medical System. If you can call an 80% Tax Rate -Free?
I liked all of the "Patients" being wheeled out on the Gurneys. I'm assuming that was to "Celebrate" the Rationing Bodies involved, in the Free Health Care, and that these people were "Symbolically" being wheeled off to someplace they could WAIT for 8 or 9 Months before getting a Procedure.
Then again...It could have just been a Representation of Britain's National Health Care System, wheeling the Free People of England to the Coffin Stores, to pick out the one they like, after being DENIED ACCESS to their Free Healthcare, for one reason, or another.
And yet, we would Copy Them in this Endeavor.
England lost her Freedoms, long ago.
It's a shame that we seem Determined to emulate them at that, as well.
Von Mises Jr| 7.31.12 @ 7:50AM
Liberty and prosperity are indirectly correlated to omnipotent government. Mises explains that free markets and free trade eliminate war. If the European governments had simply allowed individuals to produce and trade freely, there would have been no need for two World Wars.
But when omnipotent government impoverishes their people with domestic and international regulations and restrictions, the only source of wealth becomes conquest. Both the totalitarian regimes of the Soviet Union and the Nazis were aggressive chauvinist, nationalist pan-movements to conquer the world and impose their omnipotent government upon others. Without these authoritarian governments, Napoleon's conquest, as well as both World Wars would have been unnecessary and unwanted.
If Mises is correct, and I am sure he is; centrally planned omnipotent government will lead your children or grandchildren into WWIII.
Reggie Love| 7.31.12 @ 8:38AM
Good article. I still hate the Beatles though.
Louis Jenkins| 7.31.12 @ 9:06AM
Perhaps, instead of the Queen parachuting out of a helicopter, they should of had Chamberlain landing at the airport. Peace in our own time! And their own time lasted but a short breath. I found the entire opening ceremony an insult to one's intelligence, as it was made up of imaginary characters, including the sleeping children and the attentive nurses and doctors. Truth be known there were probably more doctors on stage than in the entire kingdom. The iron workers forging the rings was tolerable. That should have been the end, but no, a queen skydiving? And once in her seat she looked somewhat dissatisfied, and perhaps her bowels were disturbing her well deserved rest. And teams that have to scratch out a contestants if more than two place, well, that's another problem. Can't have too many contestants from one nation in a session now can we. (Arises from the everybody gets a medal concept.) The olympic committee is the one having bowel troubles.
Pooch Perfect| 7.31.12 @ 9:14AM
Milord,
I beg you, milord, to substitute another photo for the one displayed above. The expression on your face is, as I have said before, slightly ridiculous.
Excuse me for speaking my mind, milord,
but I was thinking that perhaps you have one that shows you looking directly into the camera with a composed, relaxed expression. That would be more appropriate. Agree?
Love the hair, though. That lustre! So shiney and brilliantly white. Could you please share with your readers the name of the shampoo you use.
PCC| 7.31.12 @ 11:04AM
Another fine article by Mr. Lord.
However, I disagree that it failed to draw a bright distinction between the authoritarian Chinese display in 2008 versus London's celebration of democratic creativity and freedom.
Houdini| 7.31.12 @ 11:20AM
Good article. The opening ceremony was akin to the smoke and mirrors we were subjected to in 08. How in God's name could we as a country elect the village idiot to the Presidency? Listening to Matt Lauer gush about the national healthcare system in Britain was disgusting. If you would have told me 40 years ago that we would fall this far I would have wondered why you had not yet been committed to the asylum, and yet here we are. Somehow we either figure out a way to turn this ship around or it's over. Someday I'm going to have to face my father and grandfather, who fought in two world wars, once again, and I'd rather not have to explain how my generation allowed the country they served to be destroyed.
Who Knows?| 7.31.12 @ 11:40AM
There is freedom, and then there is Freedom.
First, thanks for the fine conventional wisdom about the dire condition of freedom, as epitomized by the fools on the Olympic committee.
Eternal vigilance---what a price to pay!
Why, “I” only live for a pitifully few years, not eternally!
Who is free? How so? Free of what? From what? To do what? To be what? As what? Between what or who?
Consider your own prepositions—under, over, around, beneath, etc.
The biggies are of speech, of religion, of association and from want. Note the last one---the big FROM!
It’s the core animating belief of socialists like Obama.
However, true Freedom is spiritual. And, the level of spiritual maturity of Mankind, in 2012---practically nonexistent, except in rare pockets of resistance to the shouting priests, be them from Christianity, Islam, or even and especially Atheism---China, Putin, et al.
From “The Central Philosophy of Buddhism” by T.R.V. Murti, 1955, the chapter “Dialectic and Freedom”, page 258—
Who Knows?| 7.31.12 @ 11:41AM
“The so-called four freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of worship and freedom from want---are all secular. Attainment of them is only a means, not the final value. At best, they provide facilities for the group or the individual to realize his highest destiny. The freedoms represent particular and partial satisfactions; many, if not all of them, are liable to abuse. Freedom of speech as exercised by moderns—by the press and the platform—is largely propaganda, an instrument to further partisan interests. …The freedoms to be exercised in the truest interests of humanity, of all beings, presuppose a passionless and disinterested outlook free from every vestige of egoism. They all imply spiritual freedom. And only the individual can be free spiritually.”
So what, eh?
Petronius| 7.31.12 @ 12:23PM
WK pegged it. Freedom to the lost generations behind us and most of the boomers means Freedom From having to do for themselves. They have turned government here into a clone of Sweden. They refuse to compete. They believe in an economic fairy tale first expressed in the Leveler Papers of 1640. Government to them is a substitute for Mommy to hold their hands and pay them benefits from Our taxes so they can put their feet up and stare at the idiot lantern watching Jerry Springer while waiting for the one day they will get off their worthless rear ends to vote for more and higher benefits to be taken from the producers with no consideration for their willingness to pay. I won't speak of their ingratitude. They are taking what they believe they are owed from their betters. It's long passed time the producers sent them a message that will make them load their Pampers Sr.'s "We quit!!" Let's have a national lockout. Starve the beast of redistribution so the parasites in our midst starve too. They deserve no less. It always happens when the trash elements of a population take down a culture and ruin the economy. Let it come.
Seek| 7.31.12 @ 2:50PM
No ad hominem caricaturing here, I take it.