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Liberty Culture

Culture is not a thing, any more than the economy is a thing. Both consist of millions of decisions made by countless individuals on a daily basis—to buy, sell, view, listen, talk, argue, sing, in effect to be human. Culture is not perfectible, any more than people are perfectible; it is the reflection of a people—their ideas, beliefs, aspirations, doubts, and fears, basically any public expression of what it means to be human. Thus culture cannot be determined or controlled. If culture is a reflection of the human spirit and specifically of a particular society, then a culture will be as uplifting or debasing as its people. Yet as we saw earlier, the messages a people get from its “propaganda machine” will influence how they think and act. Liberty must be leavened with the moral values necessary for a self-governing people.

As our mission statement declares, we seek to inculcate into young people, seasoned professionals, and ultimately American culture at large “the founding values that make America great.” The foundation of those values, the soil from which only they can spring, is liberty. The Culture Alliance believes in a true Liberty Culture with a level playing field where all views and cultural expressions are given a fair hearing. We believe that in such a culture the nation’s traditional, founding values will win out every time. This is simply the way human beings are put together, the common grace we share as creatures made in God’s image.

A brilliant expression of why these principles of liberty are so important to the creation and sustaining of a vibrant and healthy society can be found in the principles of the Federalist Leadership Center:

The Constitution explicitly followed in that tradition by seeing human nature not as simplistically good or evil but as a balance between angelic and troublesome tendencies, as documented in its justifying work, The Federalist Papers. According to the “father of the Constitution” James Madison, differences, divisions, factions, and even conflict are innate to social life. The only way to eliminate these and other differences, he argued in Federalist 10, would be for government to extinguish liberty or force people all to think the same. Both require the improper and imprudent use of force by government. Suppressing liberty would be like eliminating air because it feeds fire and fire can be dangerous. Liberty is essential to healthy social life, even if it can be abused. Likewise, if people are free, it is impossible for all to have the same views. Rather, differences in views and about property must be protected as the “first object” of government. The only way to respect liberty and protect property and religious differences is to create an independent secular government that is limited in the powers that it can exercise over them. In that way, both secular and religious freedom can be guaranteed.

Today, primarily on the left through political correctness but also tempting to the right, many are inclined to think that cultural expression can be controlled. James Madison understood that despotism of any stripe destroys human aspiration and achievement, and that true liberty is what makes America an exemplary “City on a Hill.”

However, liberty without a strong moral foundation is a recipe for social breakdown. In his Farewell Address, George Washington expressed it as follows:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

The Culture Alliance seeks to inculcate into the American people via professions of cultural influence "the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity."