Something to Consider

Newspaper man H.L. Mencken was the cynic's cynic (even giving Ambrose Bierce a run for his money), which isn't to say he was without insight. Here's his take on freedom:

"The fact is that liberty, in any true sense, is a concept
that lies quite beyond the reach of the inferior man's mind.
He can imagine and even esteem, in his way, certain
false forms of liberty-- for example, the right to choose
between two political mountebanks, and to yell for the
more obviously dishonest-- but the reality is
incomprehensible to him. And no wonder, for genuine
liberty demands of its votaries a quality he lacks
completely, and that is courage. The man who loves it
must be willing to fight for it; blood, said Jefferson, is
its natural manure. More, he must be able to endure
it-- an even more arduous business."