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Cross-posted from the blog at JohnEdwards.com

http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/8/20/21535/6568

The Basis of the `Spirit of Liberty' & the Task of Our Times- Restoration of Liberty

user icon rjluczakII in Arguments & Analyses Feed of
8/20/2007 at 9:59 PM EST

"The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right".
Judge Learned Hand states in his famous speech `The Spirit of Liberty' :

"What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, nearly two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest".

What Judge Hand refers to in the first answer- that the "spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right"- is the very basis of the need for law, which is based in the fundamental character of the human condition, which is human fallibility. The human body of a single man is fallible, the power of a single man is fallible, and human judgment is fallible, and because of these basic human fallibilities there arises the need for community, for the help and power of others to protect us, and to join us and make us greater. There arises the need for community and the help and power of others to help us determine the truth.

By myself, I am weak, but with others together, there is a strength and power accessible to the individual that is non-existent for merely oneself. That strength is the pronouncement and enforcement of common imperatives derived from the common fallibilities, fears, and hopes that reside in each man, woman and child. These common characteristics derived from the `sensus communis', the `common sense' we all possess, form the basis of a collective wisdom that dictates what is allowable and what is not in our common quest to be free from each other, while at the same time being free with each other.

The fallibility of judgment present in the spirit which is "not too sure", forms the basis of the necessity for a common objective process for determining whether someone has indeed violated one of the common strictures that construct our freedom. Since I am fallible, others are fallible by themselves as well, and with this basic distrust in the judgment of authority of a single man or woman, let us then put down a set of procedures to follow that we all agree upon that allow all of us to come to a more objective judgment that someone is guilty of violating a stricture.

This objective method, this `due process' is thus integral to the spirit of liberty, because it forms a more objective basis for judgment, a common judgment, where the truth of the facts, as WE discover them and as WE agree on them together, determine guilt in the matter separate from the authority and musings of one man or woman. So we rely on each other and our commonly derived process to come to this judgment of the violation of strictures we agree upon, and impose upon each other.

Because of these fallibilities we must seek to understand the minds of other men and women, which provide knowledge and wisdom other than our own, and because we live with others, liberty is found not only in the rebellious ability to act on one's own, for oneself, but is found within the order and freedom created from our common strictures. Freedom from oppression, freedom from want, freedom from violence, and in these ordered freedoms I am free from the tyrannies that would be imposed by others, and they are free from those that would be imposed by me.

Because of this common fallibility, this `common sense', we are like to each other, and in this common truth exists the basis for equality under the law- that we should weigh the interest of others alongside his own without bias, because the basis upon which we are free relies upon the common shared dignity of personhood, the truth of the facts of the case, and not the assertion of power of those in authority.

Both the `great' and the `least' share the quality of human fallibility, as all men share the traits of our common humanity. No man is superhuman, infallible, and thus above the rest. And so we should be heard the same, and judged the same, with regard to the truth of the facts, derived from our commonly derived process, our `due process', as equal under the law. So there is no liberty by oneself, but only in the order among men, in and through community.

It is a liberty of order- an `ordered liberty' that balances individual freedoms with the freedom of the community. The spirit of such a liberty is thus never authoritarian, but democratic and thus autonomous, with a faith in the common goodness of other citizens and a faith in their voices to say the truth of the facts as they see it, about the law that we give to ourselves.

John Edwards' campaign to create One America implicitly refers to the greater liberty that is to be found in the unity of our common citizenship. The unfettered desires of wealthy special interests have facilitated the creation of Two America's, and has created an economic inequality that has severely limited the real liberty of ordinary citizens for the benefit of a few. So citizens must now take steps to restore the liberty promised by our constitution, and through elections and law bring the special interests and elite back within the fold of what is best for all our community.

The 'Spirit which is not too sure that it is right', based in our fallibility, also denotes that because we are fallible, the attempt to achieve the highest liberty for our society is an ongoing process of striving, or self-improvement. We must constantly strive to achieve greater liberty through our laws, and through our society, and thus continuously restore in law the spirit that resides in our hearts.

The spirit of liberty, as described so eloquently by Judge Hand, is found in the spirit of community, formed from the respect of others, from the Spirit that lies in the heart of each man, woman, and child, and created from the strength of our mutually fallible nature and our mutually empowering reliance on each other.