Imagine how despondent statists must have been in the late 1800s. The vast majority of Americans were continuing to embrace the fundamental principle proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence: that everyone has been endowed with inherent, natural, God-given rights which no government can legitimately infringe.
Our American ancestors were living in a society that was, indeed, unique and exceptional in the history of the world. Imagine: no welfare state and no warfare state. It was the most amazing society in history, one characterized by an ever-increasing standard of living and ever-growing levels of voluntary charity.
Nevertheless, the socialists and interventionists didn’t give up and turned our country into a vast welfare-warfare state, one in which we have all been born and raised and which operates under the false rubric of “freedom and free enterprise.”
Just as they defeated the advocates of liberty in their time, we can defeat the advocates of statism in our time. It just takes perseverance and determination and the conviction that our cause — the libertarian cause — is right, moral, and just and that it is the way to restore peace, prosperity, and harmony to our land.
If we continue pounding away at the statist rock, it will ultimately crack, especially since people can now clearly see what a century of statism has done to our country: decades of rising taxes, debt, inflation, monetary debasement, regulation, ruined lives, governmental dependency, overfilled prisons, fear, crisis, war, surveillance, and violations of civil liberties.
One thing is certain: if we give up, we lose automatically. The only chance we have to win is to continue fighting — and fighting harder than we ever have.
That is precisely what we are doing at The Future of Freedom Foundation. We need your generous support to continue doing it. Our ability to fight depends on your support.
Are the times in which we live difficult? Of course they are. If freedom were easy, everyone in history would have had it. Genuine freedom is an extremely difficult thing to achieve, which is why so few people in history have achieved it.
How do we accomplish this? Our methods here at FFF have always been based on the power of ideas on liberty. It is the idea of freedom that ignites the hearts and minds of men and women. It was freedom that motivated the people who signed that Declaration of Independence to risk their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.
All great movements in history — and libertarianism is definitely one of the greatest — have been led by a small minority of people. When the number of people committed to liberty reaches a critical mass, which can be significantly less than a majority, the entire society will shift.
Thus, our job is to continue building our numbers to reach that critical mass. That doesn’t necessarily mean converting people. It means finding people who are naturally disposed to libertarianism and then encouraging and nurturing their libertarian education. It also means planting seeds of liberty within the minds of people who are genuinely searching for the truth, with the hope that such seeds will find fertile intellectual ground.
Inevitably there will arise opportunities in the future to advance our cause. We need to build the intellectual and moral foundation for those unforeseen contingencies now. If we wait until they arise it will be too late.
How do we do build that foundation? That’s what our monthly journal, Future of Freedom, is all about. And our FFF Daily email publication. And our website, fff.org, where we share countless articles and videos of a libertarian nature with our readers. And our Libertarian Angle, our new weekly Internet show. And our op-ed program, in which we share FFF’s perspectives to newspapers across the country as well as on innumerable websites. And our monthly webinars with Sheldon Richman. And our Economic Liberty Lecture Series at George Mason University, whose videos we promptly post online. And our on-the-road seminars, such as the ones we did in Phoenix and Dallas. And our college tours all across the United States, most recently at five campuses in the Southeast, which introduce and explain libertarian principles to young people.
Our job is to continue fighting to win back our nation for the cause of liberty. That’s the way to restore freedom, peace, prosperity, harmony, and charity to our land.
We will continue to fight and we aim to win. Will you help us with a contribution to FFF?
Sincerely,
Jacob G. Hornberger
P.S. Reminder: If you make a donation of $250 or more, you become a member of our FFF Freedom Club and receive a video message from me every month on the principles of liberty and on current goings-on here at FFF.
