On Freedom and Truth

I recently had the great honor and privilege of attending the 2024 International Society for Military Ethics philosophy conference in Colorado Springs. It was a weekend full of intense and interesting conversations involving scholars and military leaders from all around the country and world. Topics ranged from the situation in Israel and Gaza to the war in Ukraine, evolving technologies on the modern battlefield from drones to computer codes, and the relatively new dimensions of cyber and information warfare that present our biggest threat and greatest challenge today.

I was invited to present an essay I wrote called “The Truth Will Set Us Free,” a discussion about the truth of the natural law, what it means for freedom, and what it tells us about the nature of morality. It was a tricky project, because I grapple with many high-level concepts that have been tossed around the circle of debate for thousands of years. In the world of academic philosophy, there is an unspoken rule that one never oversteps the committed work of older, more experienced thinkers, nor attempt to draw conclusions about historically dense and critically contested topics, especially when one lacks the time and institutional credentials necessary to carry the “expert” title. Philosophy is especially tricky because there are infinite paths of curiosity and inquisition at any and every point of interest, so the biggest rule of them all is to not solve Everything. I am eager to know the rules and mind them carefully, and I do not try to claim expertise where I do not have it, nor credibility where others have come before, but I am less eager to mind the rules when boldness feels more appropriate, so I took a chance and pressed forward into territory that many great, wise and intelligent people have cultivated their life’s work in for hundreds of years. It is in this place that I wrote this essay, and from this place that I take an opportunity to present it to you with a little less formality but far more urgency now. (You can read the original essay here.)

For most of history, life was a lot harder than it is today for a far greater majority of human beings. Many of us now enjoy a variety of luxuries so commonplace that we often overlook their profundity. This did not come from nowhere. It came from centuries of struggle and strife, sometimes fatal experiments of trial and error, and the propagation of ideals so captivating that people willingly marched to their own deaths on their behalf, emboldened by visions that inspired feelings of connection to something far greater than themselves — a process still shaping the reality of the world today.

The kind of values that people sacrifice their lives for can be found in the roots of our own nation and culture in the United States, at the very beginning of our nation’s history. I have stated and will stand by the claim that the Declaration of Independence was and continues to be one of the most profound documents ever written:

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…”

It is no secret that this nation did not and has yet to live up to the declarations it made when vying for its separation from the British Crown in the late 1700s, the single most powerful empire on the planet at the time. In the last handful of years alone, an intense light has been shone on our shameful failures, and there is an anger within the people that burns with a sometimes unbounded rage. At best, it draws the necessary attention to areas that need improvement, compelling effective solutions; at worst, it burns tactlessly, deepening divisions among us that have been stoked by the hands of ignorance and manipulation. This conflagration burns on the embers of everything that has ever happened in the history of the world before; an adequate summary of which is entirely impossible. And yet, were it not for history and the lessons it stands to teach us, we would have no hope of making better decisions in the present, and therefore no means of creating a better future.

So, in spite of all these relevant complications, I implore you to read these verses from the Declaration again, consider the significance of their time, and the relevancy they hold today. Then, if you would do me the honor of offering some food for thought, I invite you to be open to the following considerations.

During the age of western enlightenment a mere handful of centuries ago, when people like John Locke were writing about the “inherent natural rights” of human beings and arguing for consent-based governance, more and more people were starting to think harder about the world and themselves in ways not offered by the church, monarchy, or whatever institution otherwise ruled by force, divine decree, or similarly oppressive philosophy or power. Much of civilization comes down to life within these structures, and history has largely been a persistent struggle to dismantle the hierarchies of division and oppression that afford luxury to the few and incur suffering in the many. The idea that a people could govern themselves within a system designed to prevent a tyrannical vacuum of power is relatively new, historically speaking, and though there is still much work to be done in its pursuit, it is a powerful and extraordinary vision for what we as an organized collective might be capable of achieving.

Yet it seems that, in many ways, we have lost sight of this vision entirely. And in so doing, we have lost and continue to lose our fundamental freedoms; our inherent right to lives of autonomy and agency as conscious, moral agents of willful act and change in the co-created reality of a shared world.

You see, there is a relationship between freedom and morality that, culturally, we consistently overlook. The Fourth of July is a great time to reflect on our nation’s history and values, and the relationship between the past, the present, and the future. We love to speak of the U.S.A. as being the “land of the free,” but many of us take this on to mean something like, “This is a free country, so I can do whatever I want whenever I want to do it,” which doesn’t really accurately account for freedom itself. First of all, freedom never was and will never be about the uninhibited ability to act however you please whenever you please it, because, at the very least, you are constrained by certain fundamental laws of the universe that apply to everyone in all places and at all times. For example, you will simply never travel faster than the speed of light, because nothing travels faster than the speed of light. There are no negotiations here — it’s simply the way things are. The universal laws of physics, mathematics, biology — these are unbreakable functions that enable the existence of the anything in the first place. These are the Necessary Truths of the Universe.

Now, when it comes to morality — what is good and what is evil — things are less black and white. We more or less agree that senseless killing is morally wrong, but there is nothing physically stopping us from the action if the will and the way are present. Our moral understanding and ethical values as people will stop the action first and foremost; our written law along with the delivery of promised consequences is intended as a failsafe when the former falls through. In this sense, morality is a human convention. It isn’t coded into the fundamental workings of reality, at least not in the same way something like gravity is, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t “exist” — at least in some sense of the word. At the most basic level of reality, I argue, morality comes down to Newton’s Third Law of Motion: actions create reactions. We use language to identify and categorize experiences as good or bad based on how they make us feel or what choices they force upon us, but it is inherently fluid and dynamic as the future moves through the present and becomes the past. The actions we take now affect what we will later experience, but so do a lot of other variables, many of which are far outside of our control, including the actions of others. It is simply the nature of our world that our actions affect one another; that the choices we make now determine the consequences of the future. It becomes necessary then, when moulding the moral culture of a people, that what kind of future we want to live in is well understood. We might not agree on the whole picture of reality and we could argue endlessly about a Creator, but we can certainly agree that, based on all presently available evidence, we are obliged to a certain degree of moral responsibility and accountability when it comes to life in this world.

All across time and cultures you will find different ways of understanding moral rights and moral wrongs. You will probably find a lot of conflicting opinions, but also some strikingly similar ones, too. We spend a lot of time arguing about what the right way to look at the world is, and in so doing have spent a lot of time killing each other over differences in moral principles (an obvious yet fatally misunderstood irony!). From the time we enter this world, we are taught a certain way of understanding it, and how to act “right” according to that understanding. By the time we are adults, we may have grown so firm in our own convictions that we are no longer open and curious about other perspectives, even when faced with the disquieting truth of our own perspectives’ dangers and failures. The trap we then risk falling into is a life of actions carried out through what may be well-intended principles, but the consequences of which wreak havoc on the lives of others, entrapping us all in a vicious cycle of hurtful action and painful retribution with little grace, growth, and forgiveness to find rest and recovery in. Without some kind of guiding light in times like these, there is little hope for finding our way out of the darkness. Lucky for us, a small group of very intelligent men, though privileged and wealthy and morally imperfect, gave us that light, and it is in the very groundwork of this country that we can find it: the inalienable and equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness inherent within every human being.

For everyone to have a chance at a healthy life abundant with opportunity and choice. For nobody to live under the struggling confines of oppressive law, ideologies, or behaviors. For just access to resources like food, shelter, medicine and education. To have agency over one’s life in each of its dimensions, from the physical to the mental to the social to the spiritual.

This is the true vision of freedom. This is the vision of peace on earth, and the kingdom of God spoken about by Jesus in the book of Luke: “…the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say ‘lo, here!’ Or ‘lo, there!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (17:20–21).

Don’t you see? We are the keepers of that kingdom; we are its creator, we are its upholders, and nobody and nothing outside ourselves can make it a reality for us. We must embrace the truth that our actions have consequences, and that while freedom is the highest possible moral good for human life, it cannot truly be experienced by any if it is not had by all. Our freedoms depend on both ourselves and each other, as well as the system we consent to be governed by. We are experiencing a confluence of misguided interpretations of freedom as an ideal, and it is deepening the ever-present divides across our society. Being the land of the free actually requires all of us to live in service of the freedoms of others. I’m not saying get rid of all your possessions and go be a charity-driven monk until your dying days (but you have my support if you do). I’m saying look at your life, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, and ask yourself how you can live in greater service of others. Do you have some spare time to volunteer for a good cause? Perhaps it is as simple as offering a homeless person your leftovers from lunch, or offering a compliment to a stranger who looks like they’re having a bad day. Maybe you start rounding up your change for charity at the grocery store. I think many of us grow up thinking that changing the world looks big and sweeping and dramatic, but it really is in the little, every day actions we take throughout our lives that make the biggest difference. It can be a frightening prospect to hold so much responsibility in your hands, but that you have the power to make the world a better place from your corner of it can also be thrilling and inspiring! Because the even bigger meaning behind this is that you matter. Your existence is significant, and what you choose to do with it, a truly divine power and sacred responsibility, is significant, too.

This is why democracy is so important: it honors the significance of the individual. It creates space for all voices to be heard, all struggles to be known, and a variety of creative solutions to be pursued. It also thwarts power-hungry influence by preserving the power of the people. In theory, at least. If you’ve been paying any attention to anything in the last couple of generations, it would seem that this whole democracy experiment may just be an impossible ideal. It was a topic of great concern at this recent conference, and it seemed there was an understanding that our own people have lost sight of its significance, which in itself is one of democracy’s greatest threats. There are many others, some of which include for-profit lobbying, career politicians, legislators leaving office as multi-millionaires, a revolving door of corruption and greed fueling endless foreign wars with trillions of our tax dollars… Our own president bragged about being a politician his entire life on national television last week, disturbingly one of his few moments of clarity, and yet the media ignores this obvious testimony to the systematic oligarchy that our “democracy” really is, and instead cherry picks details to serve a larger narrative. It’s no secret that we have problems to solve, but the real problems become a lot less understandable when you realize that there are very few credible sources actually talking about them. This becomes completely clear if you resist the sensationalized headlines and often exaggerated or even flatly untrue reports in favor of watching and listening to things for yourself and asking your own questions.

And it is terribly important that you ask your own questions, and learn how to pursue their answers as thoroughly as possible. If you do not write your own script, someone will write it for you. If they hand a script to you and you go along with it, not only have they now subverted the agency of your thoughts, they have subverted the agency of your actions, too. It is manipulation, coercion, and oppression. The only thing you have to protect your agency is you, and the only way you can do that is by learning how to think for yourself. We must all learn to think for ourselves, or else scripts that lead to endless conflict will continue to be the narrative of our lives! How are we the people supposed to make the best decisions for our government if we have no idea what’s really going on? What are we sacrificing by engaging in the pompousness of the monkeys in the circus rather than investigating for ourselves? What future are we working toward when honesty is crushed for political favor, when honor is forgotten in the face of power, and when integrity is a surprise rather than an expectation?

We sacrifice our freedom, and we work toward a future of chaos overseen by criminals.

This election is bullshit, the two-party system is failing, and there is no reasonable option for the voter. A vote for this guy is a vote for domestic chaos and the risk of further internal combustion, but a vote for this guy is a vote for forever wars and the ultimate decline of the American dollar.

I watched the whole debate from start to finish, and I am unsurprised if still very frustrated with the lack of accurate reporting on it since. I have yet to see a single headline or news report that gives total honesty to it, and of course nobody is talking about the much larger elephant in the room, which is that something in the system has gone fundamentally wrong. This side highlights or exaggerates something that makes the other side look bad and then it happens in reverse, then on and on it goes while the money continues to pour out of this country’s coffers and we continue to stray further from the vision at the heart of our democracy and freedom.

It’s not just the principle that our money is being used wastefully all around the globe; it’s the principle that it’s often being used for death and destruction, for theft and manipulation, for the further enrichment of already very, very wealthy people. It’s the principle that every day, especially around this time of year, we see the colors of red, white, and blue glistening all around on flags and hats and beads and banners, but in those same days, our policies, foreign affairs, and untempered use of American tax dollars will be deployed around the world in ways that actually hinder the progress of freedom and all the other values we claim to live so boldly by. Every day we sing the anthem or say the pledge, or perhaps stand in a strict salute beneath the flag, but none of this matters and our love and loyalty to this nation is for nothing if we do not understand what values we claim and actually live by them, individually and institutionally.

There is a deep, rotten corruption in this country, and our inability to unite as a people will enslave us to this mysterious foe indefinitely. There are forces in this world which seek to eliminate democracy entirely, preferring to keep all the power in the hands of one or a few, whether by way of economic structures or ideological extremism. We need to ask more and better questions, we need to resist letting our convictions and emotions blind us to others’ reasoning, and we need to let go of this bi-partisan lens that we see our society through and form our opinions by, because it is destroying our ability to work together in favor of us, the people. We need to understand that we do not and cannot have the whole picture because history is just too dense, and allow ourselves the space to sit with the discomfort of not having all the answers. I certainly don’t, and I’d hesitate to listen to anyone who claimed to! But I do know that education, both ethical and intellectual, are imperative to the success of our democracy and a future of peace. We have to educate ourselves, and it has to be through actual books, academic journals and interviews with experts rather than soundbites and highlight reels from the news and social media. Every time we swallow a piece of information without doing the research for ourselves, we are willfully handing over our agency to know the truth and make decisions for ourselves based in that honest reality. We need to create more space to look at things objectively and with greater reason, to feel things emotionally enough to understand their importance but not so much that we lose sight of our logic, and to communicate with each other openly so that we can learn and grow together. There is no other way than this. If we the people do not learn to unsee the divisions we so deftly cling to as a source of identity and security, there will be no hope for either of those things on the backend, and the cycle of oppression will continue.

Read books. Do not believe the news. Watch and listen to things for yourself. Seek alternate perspectives. Ask questions. Challenge your beliefs and the beliefs of those around you. Do not cling so hard to your conclusions that you become unwilling to consider alternative ones, but do not lose yourself to apathy, either. These things matter. We are talking about life — our lives! — on the only home that, so far as we can tell, is the only one we have.

Why would we not strive to make it the greatest possible place to be?

Do not let the world make you hate. Hatred is a toxic thing, and it rots your soul from the inside out. Life is too short, and this world is too absorbent to let hatred leek into its corners and tarnish its beauty. Like it or not, we are in this together, so we have to work together to make it a good thing. If we are going to claim liberty as an anchoring principle, then we must live out that liberty in our every day lives. If we are going to call ourselves the land of the free, then we must uphold it through our actions. Honor, valor, glory — none of these mean anything when they are not aimed toward uplifting others, which ultimately begins by uplifting ourselves.

I believe in the vision of the Declaration, and I believe in the possibility of freedom. Moreover, I believe in the possibility of peace. But it starts with you and me. We the people. Us as individuals living among a collective. We are the building blocks. The strength of a nation’s character depends on the strength of its peoples’ integrity. We must lean on each other but also hold each other accountable. It is a constant balancing act; a constant expansion into new territory and a return to what we know to create the sturdier footing we need to keep moving forward. We need to learn to trust each other, but we can only do that if there is honesty. One of the biggest concerns in the military ethics world right now is that of national security, and in these times of internet access and information overload, it isn’t the military that is our biggest tool to preserve it, but the knowledge and moral values of our people. Educate yourself. Be a good person, and figure out what that means by listening to the world around you, and paying attention to your own experience of it. Be open. Be curious. Our minds may be the last thing we have agency over. Just this morning I watched a whole newscast about new technology that could technically be used for mind control (a successful experiment with mice makes this very eerie). Colorado just passed a law to prevent it from being used as such, but what kind of power does a state law have over national or international companies? There are some really big, existentially relevant items on the table right now, and we need wise people to lead our ship toward calmer seas, where we can think more clearly and make better decisions for everyone. We need people who are willing to work with our adversaries, because threats like climate change and international terrorism really don’t matter in terms of solutions if we don’t have the rest of the world on the same page. We are very lucky in this nation to enjoy a lot of privileged things, and for many of us that means we don’t need to pay too much attention to the rest of the world. But if we don’t, we will eventually be blindsided by darker times, and as the landscape of the world grows more complex, it may be harder to find our way out.

This Independence Day, I ask you to reflect on freedom, seek out truth, and be the good that you want to see in the world. We must remember how powerful human beings can be, and that we are most powerful when we are working together. Have diplomatic conversations with people, and seek to understand. We do not have to agree on everything to make this world great; we just have to agree to keep working together, and accept that it is a work in progress. There are many things that don’t matter in this world, but many that really, really do. I encourage you to look for the heart that beats at the vision of our Declaration of Independence, and find the truth of its passionately profound proclamations for yourself.