WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.440 Hey, welcome back to the Barry Ferris Show. I hope you're doing great. I really do. 2 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:09.260 This is the first episode in a seven-part series on freedom principles. I'll frame 3 00:00:09.260 --> 00:00:15.720 the discussion around two elements, citizen mandates and freedom rights. There are seven 4 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:22.020 citizen mandates that lay the foundation upon which freedom is built. Now I define citizen 5 00:00:22.020 --> 00:00:28.940 mandates as the implicit or explicit command of the people to the government. You could 6 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:33.660 call them contract terms and conditions, but that doesn't quite capture the force 7 00:00:33.660 --> 00:00:38.660 of keeping the government in its place. I'm calling them citizen mandates to resurrect 8 00:00:38.660 --> 00:00:45.100 the concept that the government is supposed to operate with some humility as the servant 9 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:51.220 of the people. It reflects that in our representative form of government, the people are the ultimate 10 00:00:51.220 --> 00:00:56.940 authority. The government it elects serves them. The U.S. Constitution is basically a 11 00:00:56.940 --> 00:01:00.940 social contract where the people hired the government to govern things under certain 12 00:01:00.940 --> 00:01:08.020 terms and conditions. And that's why the first three words in the U.S. Constitution are we 13 00:01:08.020 --> 00:01:12.340 the people. And then you've got the contract terms in all the articles. In the next four 14 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:17.220 episodes, including this one, I'll describe these seven citizen mandates and how they 15 00:01:17.220 --> 00:01:22.420 developed. We'll trace the historical development of freedom from overbearing governmental control 16 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:27.340 and how it culminated at America's founding. In fact, each of these seven mandates was 17 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:31.860 mentioned by one of the founders in a writing or a speech. After we lay the foundation of 18 00:01:31.860 --> 00:01:37.120 the limits to government expressed in the citizen mandates, we will delve into the three 19 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:42.920 pillars of freedom. Now you know these. These pillars represent the three freedom rights, 20 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:48.100 the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The political science concept 21 00:01:48.100 --> 00:01:53.520 of freedom boils down to these three freedom pillars. I call them pillars because they 22 00:01:53.520 --> 00:01:59.820 stand tall. They're a beacon of hope and they're inalienable rights. They come from God and 23 00:01:59.820 --> 00:02:06.300 not government. But governments tend toward control and ultimately seek to tear down these 24 00:02:06.300 --> 00:02:12.220 freedom pillars. That's why the foundation of the seven citizen mandates is so critical. 25 00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:17.180 So let's look at the first two citizen mandates right now. When my granddad immigrated to 26 00:02:17.220 --> 00:02:23.220 America, he experienced firsthand the power of a smaller government. He came through Ellis 27 00:02:23.220 --> 00:02:28.340 Island when he was 21 with his two sisters way back in 1915. His ship was called the 28 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:35.340 SS Thessaloniki. It was built in 1889. The ship would never pass safety requirements 29 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:40.220 today. It would not pass code. It was way overcrowded. Think of one of those boats that 30 00:02:40.220 --> 00:02:45.260 you've seen where people are all smudged together. That's the kind of boat he came over on. It 31 00:02:45.260 --> 00:02:49.660 took 40 days to travel to the United States. His manifest shows that he was single and 32 00:02:49.660 --> 00:02:54.980 on a boat loaded with Greeks and Turks. In his early days in the U.S., granddad was a 33 00:02:54.980 --> 00:02:59.220 small-time entrepreneur. He scratched out a living selling cheese in Boston, had one 34 00:02:59.220 --> 00:03:05.140 of those big rolling carts. The Kraft family drove him out. He was so successful. And they 35 00:03:05.140 --> 00:03:11.180 did it by charging below cost. And this was after scrappy granddad refused their acquisition 36 00:03:11.180 --> 00:03:16.180 terms. Later, he had a great job as one of the international VPs for Goodyear Tire. And 37 00:03:16.180 --> 00:03:21.420 that was partly due to his street smarts and partly due to the seven languages he knew. 38 00:03:21.420 --> 00:03:26.340 And six at that time he knew fluently. Then he returned to small-time entrepreneur in 39 00:03:26.340 --> 00:03:33.060 a variety of businesses. He wasn't lazy. In fact, he learned Spanish fluently at 79. And 40 00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:36.820 he definitely obeyed the admonition to be fruitful and multiply. My goodness, he had 41 00:03:36.820 --> 00:03:42.700 seven kids and 31 grandchildren, of which I'm pretty much in the middle of the pack. 42 00:03:42.700 --> 00:03:48.300 He lived until 1986, passing at 91. Before he died, my young wife and I stayed with him 43 00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:53.140 in his home in Boca Raton. He was a crusty guy, full of life, them, and a fair share 44 00:03:53.140 --> 00:03:58.220 of vinegar. He was still working, making, and selling handmade ties to some folks in 45 00:03:58.220 --> 00:04:02.740 the neighborhood. I was interested in business and politics and had just started following 46 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:07.900 William F. Buckley and George Gilder. I was like 22. I asked him a couple questions about 47 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:14.340 politics. His response revealed his deep appreciation for freedom. When he came to America, he came 48 00:04:14.340 --> 00:04:18.620 at the same time that the Ottoman Empire was killing over a million Armenian Christians. 49 00:04:18.620 --> 00:04:22.620 He didn't go into details about how frightful and horrible it was. He insinuated that it 50 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:27.540 was not good to be in the Middle East during that Ottoman Empire. But what he mostly conveyed 51 00:04:27.540 --> 00:04:33.860 is that he had a firm grip on how deeply grateful he was for America. It seemed like 52 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:38.400 he didn't want to relive some really nasty things that he heard of or saw. The Ottoman 53 00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:42.500 Empire was the largest political entity in Europe and Western Asia until it imploded 54 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:47.860 in the early 1920s. Read up on it. You can see how evil they were to just about everyone, 55 00:04:47.860 --> 00:04:52.500 except for the folks that helped them gain power. Granddad was an earnest Christian, 56 00:04:52.820 --> 00:04:58.100 When I say earnest, I mean he was a true believer and he had no room for excuses, at least as 57 00:04:58.100 --> 00:04:59.940 far as his family was concerned. 58 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.060 He expected all of us and all of our kids and all of our kids' kids to follow God. 59 00:05:05.060 --> 00:05:11.880 He was also serious about the link between God the Father, His Creator, and the equal 60 00:05:11.880 --> 00:05:14.260 treatment of people. 61 00:05:14.260 --> 00:05:18.780 He didn't articulate it the same way George Gilder would have or Ronald Reagan would have. 62 00:05:18.780 --> 00:05:23.660 Reagan was president at the time, but Granddad loved him because he exuded gratitude for 63 00:05:23.660 --> 00:05:28.680 the land of freedom guided under the rule of law. 64 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:34.760 Granddad was pretty able, even academically, but his argument for freedom was guttural. 65 00:05:34.760 --> 00:05:40.400 I give my Granddad credit for my nearly vicarious impartation of the emotional appreciation 66 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:44.760 I have for freedom, but the truth is I was always sort of patriotic. 67 00:05:44.760 --> 00:05:47.880 In my public school we stood and said the Pledge of Allegiance. 68 00:05:47.880 --> 00:05:53.600 I felt a deep tug when I said the last line, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty 69 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:55.960 and justice for all. 70 00:05:55.960 --> 00:05:58.640 That pretty much sums up my political philosophy too. 71 00:05:58.640 --> 00:06:04.080 I love the concept of freedom and I think everyone does, but that could mean different 72 00:06:04.080 --> 00:06:06.240 things to different people. 73 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:10.360 How does one know if the freedom he or she promulgates is really based on truth? 74 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:11.740 Can you be sure? 75 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:16.120 Is there an objective way to measure whether or not you are free? 76 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:19.320 This and the following three broadcasts will provide the seven mandates that government 77 00:06:19.320 --> 00:06:24.560 must abide by to be worthy of being the government of a free people. 78 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:28.280 When they do, they support the three absolute pillars of freedom. 79 00:06:28.280 --> 00:06:30.920 Those three are fundamental to every other freedom. 80 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:34.640 In fact, without these three, no other freedoms endure. 81 00:06:34.640 --> 00:06:38.480 What makes these three pillars of freedom unique is that we don't have to agree on 82 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:44.960 doctrinal issues or a whole bunch of things to agree that all people naturally want the 83 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:50.240 right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 84 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:52.520 These ideas were made popular by John Locke. 85 00:06:52.520 --> 00:06:54.640 He called them natural rights. 86 00:06:54.640 --> 00:06:59.320 In the natural order of things, the right to life, liberty, and property are innate. 87 00:06:59.320 --> 00:07:03.680 The right to life, where the idea is based on the observation that people want to survive. 88 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:07.600 They want to be safe from threats to their lives and a whole bunch more. 89 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:11.640 The right to liberty is where the idea is that people want to be free as possible. 90 00:07:11.640 --> 00:07:15.240 People want to make their own decisions and live as they please, as long as it doesn't 91 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:16.620 hurt someone else. 92 00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:18.600 They want the right to property. 93 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:23.080 This was amplified to the pursuit of happiness by the American founders. 94 00:07:23.080 --> 00:07:27.920 This is the notion that people want to own things that are necessary for their survival 95 00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:28.920 and abundance. 96 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:31.400 Food, houses, tools, land. 97 00:07:31.400 --> 00:07:35.040 People want the opportunity to work and gain economic benefits and they want to own their 98 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:38.360 own labor, not be forced into something they don't want to do. 99 00:07:38.360 --> 00:07:42.640 During this series, we'll discuss how fantastic that concept, by expanding it to the pursuit 100 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:45.440 of happiness, actually became for the world. 101 00:07:45.440 --> 00:07:49.080 It turned into something quite exceptional, but you'll have to wait for that. 102 00:07:49.080 --> 00:07:55.080 For much of human history, the government or the monarchy treated people horrible. 103 00:07:55.080 --> 00:07:58.080 They viewed people as their subjects. 104 00:07:58.080 --> 00:08:03.200 And even in benevolent monarchies, there was always the impending threat of arbitrary power 105 00:08:03.200 --> 00:08:06.680 used in a coercive manner to cause great harm. 106 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:08.400 Here's a yucky example. 107 00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:13.400 In 1668, a group of commoners in East London descended upon a local brothel and practically 108 00:08:13.400 --> 00:08:14.720 demolished it. 109 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:19.240 The next day, thousands of men moved in large groups all over London, tearing down every 110 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:21.120 brothel they came across. 111 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:27.380 By Wednesday, just three days later, one report estimated that as many as 40,000 protesters 112 00:08:27.380 --> 00:08:33.679 had organized into formal regiments, marching through town, demolishing brothels. 113 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:34.679 These men were angry. 114 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:39.320 They had reached their breaking points with the English government and King Charles II, 115 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:43.320 who had issued this royal proclamation that outlawed private gatherings for religious 116 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:44.320 worship. 117 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:48.360 Specifically, the king's order made it illegal for more than five people to congregate and 118 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:52.680 pray outside of the government's official Church of England. 119 00:08:52.680 --> 00:09:00.920 He called any such private gatherings dangerous and seditious, kind of like truck drivers. 120 00:09:00.920 --> 00:09:06.420 So either you submitted to the government's religious mandates, or you were a criminal. 121 00:09:06.420 --> 00:09:09.760 It really ticked people off that Charles II believed that their spiritual beliefs were 122 00:09:09.760 --> 00:09:14.280 immoral, while at the same time he allowed for so many prostitutes. 123 00:09:14.280 --> 00:09:18.700 He was sort of the Epstein of the time, but worse, because he was also king. 124 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:23.680 He was a womanizer in horrible ways, just grabbing a woman off the streets with total 125 00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:24.720 power. 126 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:29.160 He could do whatever he pleased, but he would not let people gather and make their own spiritual 127 00:09:29.160 --> 00:09:31.800 and religious decisions. 128 00:09:31.800 --> 00:09:33.720 So people reached their breaking point. 129 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:40.320 They attacked brothels to highlight the king's absurd double standard, and to demand an end 130 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:44.720 to the government's mandates, kind of like a convoy, like a truck convoy. 131 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:46.440 So the king took action. 132 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:47.760 He arrested protest leaders. 133 00:09:47.760 --> 00:09:50.040 He charged them with high treason. 134 00:09:50.040 --> 00:09:53.000 Attacking the brothels was an attack on the king. 135 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:54.000 This guy was really bad. 136 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:59.040 I mean, the king was very upset, even calling their views and beliefs unacceptable. 137 00:09:59.040 --> 00:10:00.040 The king had arbitrary power. 138 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.560 power. In other words, the ability to arbitrarily make something a law after the fact with total 139 00:10:05.560 --> 00:10:09.680 power of the sword to enforce it retroactively. 140 00:10:09.680 --> 00:10:16.000 So he rounded up the leaders. There were four who were charged with treason and sedition. 141 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:20.920 And these protest leaders were drawn, hanged, and quartered. That's the standard punishment 142 00:10:20.920 --> 00:10:25.600 for high treason. And this is really a horrible way to die. I mean, you're first dragged behind 143 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:30.760 horses. I think that's the drawn part. Then hung. But you're released right before you 144 00:10:30.760 --> 00:10:35.520 die. And as you're catching your breath, they chop off your private parts and slice you 145 00:10:35.520 --> 00:10:41.320 open. Then you die. Then they behead you. And if that's not gross enough, they tear 146 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:46.760 your corpse into four pieces and hang them in prominent locations to warn others not 147 00:10:46.760 --> 00:10:48.720 to protest. 148 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:54.040 Now as extreme as that story sounds, it wasn't that uncommon for the king to act in a really 149 00:10:54.040 --> 00:11:00.080 arbitrary way to harm dissidents in his kingdom. In his mind, the king had divine right and 150 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:05.960 power over you and over your life. And your life didn't matter and his did. 151 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:10.720 Well all this history is in the mind of the founders of America. And there's a legal document 152 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:15.920 that properly understood reveals the first two citizen mandates against a government. 153 00:11:15.920 --> 00:11:22.000 It dates way back to 1215. And it's by the citizens of England against the British crown. 154 00:11:22.040 --> 00:11:26.000 I mean, the time period is during the era of the legend of Robin Hood. So go back and 155 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:30.160 look at one of those movies and think about this. During this time period, King Richard, 156 00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:33.760 the Lionheart, dies in France by a sniper in one of the movies, The Guys in France, 157 00:11:33.760 --> 00:11:37.600 and shoots him with a bow and arrow, which is relatively accurate. 158 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:42.440 Richard was far from perfect, but he was comparatively loved because he was thought to be for his 159 00:11:42.440 --> 00:11:48.480 people. But he was so busy with his crusades that he had no succession plan. So when he 160 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:54.320 died, his conniving and rather evil brother took over as king. His name was John. He's 161 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:58.120 ruthless and self-absorbed. He's in it for the power. 162 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:02.920 By the time 1215 rolls around, the barons, the rich guys in England, threatened civil 163 00:12:02.920 --> 00:12:08.200 war if he didn't agree to some limitations to his power. King John is a truly bad king. 164 00:12:08.200 --> 00:12:11.880 I mean, he's overbearing, he's arbitrary and exacting. If he lived at this time frame, 165 00:12:11.880 --> 00:12:16.960 the last two years, he would have required unnecessary mandates just because he wanted 166 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:23.440 to exert control. Imagine that. He was in it for the sheer unholy thrill of exerting 167 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:29.840 power over others. Running after somebody, coming out of a Home Depot without a mask. 168 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:35.520 So back to the story. The rich guys who owned land and paid the most taxes told the king, 169 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:40.240 you'll get no more tax revenues. The rich guys are coming to the king saying, you're 170 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:43.800 not going to get more tax revenues. They paid almost all the taxes, which is always the 171 00:12:43.800 --> 00:12:49.640 case, even now. We will use those tax dollars to build an army. We'll use that army to 172 00:12:49.640 --> 00:12:55.480 attack your army. And did we mention that you'll get no more tax revenues from us? 173 00:12:55.480 --> 00:13:01.400 So King John, a really horribly flawed man, is given this credible threat of civil war. 174 00:13:01.400 --> 00:13:06.160 And if he doesn't relent, he's going to be toast. So he's backed into a corner. King 175 00:13:06.160 --> 00:13:11.320 John signs the Magna Carta. It's a really cumbersome document, but it manages to introduce 176 00:13:11.400 --> 00:13:20.040 two amazing citizen mandates. Number one, government shall be limited. It can't invent 177 00:13:20.040 --> 00:13:25.000 unruly, arbitrary rules and laws. It cannot arbitrarily control your life. And it's not 178 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:31.400 supposed to do everything or solve every problem. Number two, government shall submit to the rule 179 00:13:31.400 --> 00:13:37.400 of law. It has to obey the laws of the land too. The king can't wake up in the middle of the night 180 00:13:37.400 --> 00:13:42.840 all mad at somebody and change the rules and then set someone up to become guilty of a crime 181 00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:50.760 that didn't previously exist. Government has to obey the laws it makes. King John was slippery 182 00:13:50.760 --> 00:13:55.240 as heck. He's like one of those nasty villains in a movie that just won't die until the very, 183 00:13:55.240 --> 00:14:01.000 very end. He tried to feign compliance and not sign this historic document. Yet finally, 184 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:06.440 he relented and begrudgingly signed the 1215 Magna Carta. Even though many kings ignored 185 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:12.040 the document, like the one we just talked about above, this established a foundation 186 00:14:12.040 --> 00:14:17.480 of limited government. Kind of amazing for the time. So when the founders of the United States 187 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:22.280 were thinking about how to structure the contract terms between the U.S. government and the people, 188 00:14:22.280 --> 00:14:28.440 these two conditions loomed large. Call them contract terms and conditions or call them 189 00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:33.240 citizen mandates like I want you to. Either way, the government is working for the people. 190 00:14:33.800 --> 00:14:39.640 So the first two citizen mandates are number one, government shall be limited and number two, 191 00:14:39.640 --> 00:14:45.560 government shall submit to the rule of law. This was new. The government in England thought it had 192 00:14:45.560 --> 00:14:50.840 a divine right to do whatever the heck it wanted. Now the government would have to abide by some 193 00:14:50.840 --> 00:14:56.040 specific orders from the people that it would govern and government's power would be defined. 194 00:14:56.920 --> 00:14:59.800 Way to go, people of Britain. 195 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.400 So the Magna Carta of 1215 was an explicit attempt to impose upon the king 196 00:15:05.400 --> 00:15:08.840 a limit to his powers and to ensure protection of rights 197 00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:12.120 to the citizen. And this led to the belief 198 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:17.000 that constitutional law is superior to a monarch's. 199 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:20.080 So these two citizen mandates would elevate the citizen 200 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:23.640 and they would increase the odds of fair treatment. And the idea of limited 201 00:15:23.640 --> 00:15:25.800 government and the rule of law would become critical 202 00:15:25.800 --> 00:15:29.840 in the minds of the founders of the United States. Next time we'll look at 203 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:33.040 two more citizen mandates, each one's essential. In fact, 204 00:15:33.040 --> 00:15:36.560 when you see a pillar of freedom being chipped away, it's because one or more 205 00:15:36.560 --> 00:15:41.200 of the seven citizen mandates has lost its influence, its power, its force. 206 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:44.920 For the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to endure, 207 00:15:44.920 --> 00:15:48.640 we need to return to limited government. 208 00:15:48.640 --> 00:15:51.360 The government does not need to solve every problem. 209 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:55.560 And as we've seen during the COVID era, when the government assumes it's supposed 210 00:15:55.560 --> 00:15:59.280 to solve every problem, they often make it worse. 211 00:15:59.280 --> 00:16:02.760 For the freedom pillars to endure, we need to return to a rule of law 212 00:16:02.760 --> 00:16:07.520 that applies to those in power. We've seen widespread hypocrisy 213 00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:11.880 on nearly every COVID related mandate. 214 00:16:11.880 --> 00:16:17.240 The people in power violate the rules that they force upon Joe and Jane public. 215 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:20.680 We're going to find that the three pillars of freedom 216 00:16:20.680 --> 00:16:25.280 were not frivolously derived to your freedom. 217 00:16:25.280 --> 00:16:27.200 God bless you and we'll see you soon. 218 00:16:29.520 --> 00:16:31.800 Hi, I'm David Farah. 219 00:16:31.800 --> 00:16:36.440 Thank you for listening to my dad's podcast, The Barry Farah Show, Culture Shift. 220 00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:40.040 Click subscribe now to be sure you don't miss an episode. 221 00:16:40.040 --> 00:16:42.680 Share this podcast with your friends on social media 222 00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:46.080 and give The Barry Farah Show your five star rating. 223 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:47.040 See you next time.