Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Yesterday I watched the first two parts of HBO's John Adams miniseries, and I was really impressed. (Hopefully you're watching it too, because it's very worthwhile.) The second part is about John Adams convincing Congress that it needs to declare independence from Great Britain, because of the way the colonists have been abused by the king (taxation without representation, British soldiers firing on young boys, etc.). John Adams talks a lot about the natural rights of man, and how the colonies need to be independent to get those rights back.

The whole time I was watching it I was thinking to myself, what happened to that spirit of craving liberty, no matter what the cost? What happened to believing that man has natural rights that can't be taken away by the government (and if the government does take them away, it's cause for revolution)? Today people could care less whether they're free, so long as the government helps take care of them. Can you imagine people today being willing to give up everything they owned, just for a chance at a better government and more liberty? I sure can't. And I wish I knew how we'd gone from there to here in just 230 years.

The title of today's post is a quote by Barry Goldwater.