An
essay on Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Freedom
is a word that applies to the individual, alone or in society. A solitary
pioneer can cross the frontier into the wilderness and be free. In contrast,
Liberty
is a social word. It is the totality of all freedoms that an individual may
enjoy in the context of society. In other words, when speaking about
freedom
in a community, society, or civilization, one speaks of
liberty.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, as nations evolved, liberty became an
importance concept. John Locke
wrote "
The commonwealth seems to me to be a
society of men constituted only for the procuring, preserving, and advancing
their own civil interests. Civil interests I call life, liberty, health, and
indolency [freedom from pain] of body; and the possession of outward things,
such as money, lands, houses, furniture, and the like.'
When the American colonists sought independence from King George III and his
Parliament, Virginian George Mason wrote in the Virginia Declaration of Rights
on June 12, 1776, "
That all men are by nature equally free and
independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a
state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their
posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of
acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and
safety."
Less than a month later, in one of the most famous documents in western
history, the American Declaration of Independence, drafted primarily by
Thomas Jefferson, declared "
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."
Note especially Mason's linking liberty with
entering into a state of
society. In other words, liberty is freedom in the context of a
community or a society of what he called
men, what today we would
call citizens: adult men and women (except, of course, outlaws deprived by society
of their rights or their protection).
BY THE 20TH CENTURY, ORDER AND SECURITY BECAME MORE IMPORTANT
THAN LIBERTY
By the 20th century, in the name of taming the chaos of life, to give people
a life that appears well-ordered and familiar, we saw the emergence of a
new set of values: society reinventing itself by creating new, larger, and more
complex institutions, corporations, and bureaucracies. These new forms of
society were intent on controlling Nature, individuals, families, traditional
communities and traditional ways of life, and in controlling many of life's
uncertainties and unknowns. We saw the emergence of rules and regulations, of
layers of government and private enterprise (led by the
Industrial Statesmen
- disparagingly known as the
Robber Barons) that organized life into hierarchies in
which human beings became less important. Unfortunately, while this promised to
provide a well-ordered utopian life, it failed to deliver on that promise, and
instead resulted in considerable restriction of liberty. In socialist
nations, too often this meant corruption, the rule of the petty bureaucrat or
the authoritarian dictatorship. In capitalist nations, too, this often resulted
in corruption, and the rule of private oligarchies where a few used the system
to benefit themselves at the expense of a majority – a majority who found
opportunity had been privatized; only affordable by the few who held or had
access to the power.
In the latter part of the 20th century, the character of society changed
again. Societies redefined their majorities not as producers, but as consumers.
The security that had been built up by the hierarchies of government and
corporations broke. A good example is IBM, which in the 1990s reversed its
lifelong-employment policy and laid off many thousands of loyal employees. Not
coincidentally, it was the invention of the pre-eminent consumer device - the
personal computer, run by an operating system licensed to IBM by Microsoft's
Bill Gates - that contributed to this breakdown of the paternal corporation.
At its core, the process of breaking trust began. The security that was
supposed to be the trade-off for loss of liberty slowly began to evaporate.
Many noticed the loss of security; few noticed what was happening to liberty.
In this new era of the consumer, social structure began to break down and
individual life became fragmented. The abundance of things to buy, and for a
while, the easy credit with which to buy them, masked the destruction of that
sense of solidity built up over the centuries. Consumers gave up security in
order to enjoy a debased form of freedom: freedom to purchase, to consume, and
to enjoy material things. People would change jobs, homes, communities,
spouses, and their core identity: their values, beliefs, their given and family
names, and even the appearance of their face, body, or gender, according to the
ever-changing demands of fashion and circumstance. Conspiracy theories gained
new believers as individuals tried to understand their increasing loss of
control. Insecurity and uncertainty became the new norm. Temporary became the
new reality. At the top, the sense of obligation and stewardship of an older
generation gave way to a new breed where the game is a fight for power,
with little concern for the effect on people or planet. In a very deep
sense, no one is in control anymore, as leadership has devolved to securing
advantage. At its core, trust in institutions, leadership, community, and
society, and even trust in marriage and family came under assault. Not
coincidentally, the ancient principle of liberty was and is now increasingly in
further retreat.
TRUST HOLDS COMMUNITIES, SOCIETIES,AND CIVILIZATIONS TOGETHER
Trust is an integral part of the glue that holds communities, societies, and
civilizations together. They can be forcefully contained by fear, but then as
has been seen in the
Arab Spring, new technology, such as smart phones and
social media like Facebook and Twitter, can empower ordinary people to
overthrow regimes that rule through fear.
Trust is voluntary, it is an agreement that is established through words,
and earned through deeds. Often, trust is maintained through checks and
balances, meaning power is distributed so that when one person or party starts
to move too far to an extreme, another person, party, or group brings them back
into balance. In English Law, the Magna Carta of 1215 established checks and
balances to secure the liberty of
freemen. It was secured by force of
arms - King John of England had a choice: sign or die. Over the subsequent eight
centuries, rule of force gradually was replaced by rule of law; today the great
battles over the direction and fate of communities, societies, and
civilizations are fought by lawyers, bankers, and captains of industry rather
than abbots, bishops, and barons.
Today, the great institutions of state cannot always guarantee peace and
protection from national invasion or rebellion in most first-world nations. Although
the VillageTown currently depends on that security for its existence, the
VillageTown could maintain its own security by its citizens. Even within the
context of the safety provided by the state, the VillageTown examines the
concept of liberty, and concludes that it cannot rely on the large institutions
of state, business, and industry to protect its liberty. As was seen in
near-crash of the global financial system in 2008, banks are no longer
institutions of absolute trust. Instead of freedom from home invasion,
individuals are told to buy locks, security systems, and insurance to protect
life, limb, and property.
As individuals, restoration of personal liberty in day-to-day life is
difficult, if not impossible.
Instead, it
is achieved when they enter into a state of society, to use
Mason's words.
THE VILLAGE TOWN IS NOT PRESCRIPTIVE
The VillageTown is a state of society. However, the VillageTown is not
prescriptive, like an intentional community or a cult that provides a
pre-determined set of answers. It is a culture, not a cult. Instead, it
provides structure to enable the village citizens of the VillageTown to enter
into a state of society. They set out their expectations for their village, and
then negotiate with the other villages, the expectations of the town as a
whole. By virtue of these many villages, checks and balances are introduced.
The checks and balances provide a self-governance system intended to create a
sustainable physical environment - meaning one that will provide for no less
than seven generations - intended to foster life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. How it will turn out, or evolve, entirely depends on the people
who live there, as individuals, as families, as communities, and as members of
a society and a civilization.
Some freedoms are inherently more accessible in a VillageTown. For example,
at one time, children were free to roam, to learn independence and autonomy
because their parents were not afraid they would get run down by a car, or
abducted by an anonymous predator driving by. This freedom is stronger in a
VillageTown because the cars are kept outside, and predators will find the
villages provide no cover for them. Similarly is the freedom from economic
control. Let this be explained by a story:
A number of years ago, there was a debate in the Costa Rican legislature
over the downside of depending on a tourist economy. Many of legislators were
independent farmers who noted that they could say what they want as
legislators, because their livelihood was their own. If they were censured for
what they said, they may get tossed out of the legislature, but they would be
able to return to their farm and take care of their family's needs - they were
economically independent. Yet they noted that if their children took jobs
in the tourist industry, they were reluctant to become involved in matters of
citizenship, for fear of losing their job if they took a controversial
position. They saw that their future liberty could be compromised by a shift in
economic dependency.
In the VillageTown, the reasons to create a self-supporting economy are due
to the failure of the national and global economies to deliver on their
promises of security. Events over the past several decades have proved they
cannot be depended upon. However, as a happy side effect, by creating a
self-supporting local economy based on many small-to-medium enterprises that
are privately owned by VillageTown citizens, the fear of losing ones income if
one exercises the right to freedom of speech is lessened.
If this self-supporting local economy agrees to take care of its own; that
the Legacy Fund managers are charged with the responsibility to provide
"hand-up" opportunities for people who suffer a setback, losing their
job, for example, then there is increased freedom. Economically, people will
take more risks. It was Thomas Edison who is quoted as saying "I have not
failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." That sort of
inventiveness was possibly only because Edison had structured his life so his
family would not starve while he took the risks to find the way that does work.
THE VILLAGE TOWN LOOKS CAREFULLY AT LIBERTY
The VillageTown concept looked carefully at liberty, to find that balance
between freedom and enabling people to get along with each other. It took the
long view, looking back thousands of years in history and looking at many
cultures. While the language comes out of the European and American colonial
experiences (which owe a strong debt to the philosophers of ancient Athens as
well perhaps as the Iroquois Confederation), the cultures that were examined
and whose best elements woven in is much broader.
Essentially, the concept
evolved through a pragmatic asking of what works, what does not work, and why.
More importantly, the process is not complete. Each VillageTown will be
established in a way that its people shape their own future. Each will be
different, because the people will be different.
Throughout the history of humanity various forms of society have been tried
and tested. In the 18th century, American and future President James Madison
wrote a strong case for checks and balances, and indeed history has shown that
as long as those checks and balances are upheld, extremes are avoided, and the
state of society does fairly well.
History has also shown that the most effective forms of society are ones in
which checks and balances are face to face. The elected or appointed leaders
who regularly encounter their constituents on the street or in the check-out
line face a direct form of accountability that can't be beat. This is one
reason why the VillageTown seeks to cap its population size at about 10,000.
Much larger than that and facelessness begins to creep in.
This is one reason why it is proposed to build a town made of villages. A
village of five hundred people (including about 20% children) is generally able
to run directly, not dissimilar to the 19th century New England Town Meeting or
the New Zealand Maori
hui, where all citizens meet to decide matters.
In such communities, people will sort out matters according to their own ways,
and each village may be run differently than the next. It is their business and
their responsibility.
As can be seen, none of these ideas are new, and all are time-tested. What
will make it interesting is that the internal governance of these communities
will in effect be private. They will exist as a layer separate from the nation,
state or host jurisdiction. They will pay taxes rather than collect taxes. If
the VillageTown citizens decide they value services not paid for by the state
or host jurisdiction, they will decide to assess themselves the cost to pay for
them not as taxes but as fees.
Finally, it needs to be emphasized that this essay is not universally
applicable. This essay speaks mostly to western civilization, not the much more
ancient oriental civilization which has a very different set of values in which
harmony holds a much higher position. There is considerable interest in
VillageTowns in the Orient, and the physical structure of the VillageTown is
most appealing to them. However, the system of self-governance that would
emerge in an oriental VillageTown may be expected to be very different. Since
the VillageTown concept is an inert framework given life by the people who will
live there, this does not create a problem.
To summarize, liberty is a concept that emerged in Western nations over many
centuries. Around the beginning of the 20th century, large institutions and
hierarchies began to emerge in which society gave up liberty in exchange for
order and personal security. Toward the end of the 20th century, the order and
security began to break down, as anxiety was privatized, but the ability to do
something about it remained centralized. In the 21st century, people are
recognizing that if they want to do something about it, the laws give them the
power to do so, but they can't do it as solitary individuals. So looking back
to models that worked before the great centralization, the VillageTown offers a
way in which people can take care of their own.
In a time when most of the world has traded liberty for security, and the security has been exposed as a fraud, shouldn't we start at the beginning with families re-creating communities? The Village Town in Eastern Missouri is a way to do just that. Liberty is an integral part of that. Join us!
The VillageTown does not promote or hold affiliation with any religion (or
lack thereof). However, under the principle of a good life, it
provides space designed for the human expression of religion. Sacred
architecture plays in both rites of passage (birth, coming of age, marriage,
death) and the human need for the holy or the sacred, be it a building,
cemetery or even a grove.
The VillageTown has no religious affiliation, which not only means it does
not sponsor a particular religion, but that it also does not sponsor
agnosticism or atheism. It takes advice from Thomas Jefferson who once wrote Religion
is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have
considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other,
and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle. In practice, this
means that if a village cluster is formed by families and individuals who share
a religion, they have every right to do so, but not to be in conflict with
their neighbors over what is deemed the truth.
It involves celebrations, and for many it involves spiritual experience;
indeed much of the religious experience celebrates these forms of experience
and practice. In these human rites, the role of sacred architecture...
cathedrals, chapels, churches, mosques, shrines and temples contributes to the
quality and character of a village and of a town. For a town to deprive itself
of such architecture based on secular separation of the profane from the sacred
is a shame and a loss.
citizens determine the details. In the town
center, a cathedral-sized sacred hall provides for large events of passage and
for services conducted by religious groups. If such a group requires
consecrated space in accordance with their beliefs, they would secure a wing
for those purposes, but share the common hall with other religions and lay
celebrants.
Artistic and Intellectual growth is about creating, doing rather than
consuming. It makes a place vital, engaging, vibrant and colorful. To support
it, the VillageTown must 
provide venues for artistic growth
& public celebration.
