"Ideas are more powerful than all the armies of the world. Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come." Victor Hugo’s observation resonates with Lawrence Reed, FEE's President Emeritus and author of the forthcoming Born of Ideas, who traces his liberty awakening to 1968 when Soviet tanks crushed Prague Spring. Then, he was a 14-year-old watching people who simply wanted to speak their minds get destroyed for demanding basic rights.
Now, nearly 60 years into his "otherwise unemployable" career advancing liberty, Larry argues that July 4, 1776 was "this incredible combination...like a thunderclap" where "men and women of solid character" met "revolutionary ideas" about human rights. Larry teaches students that ideas—not institutions, media, or parents—determine "whether people live in a free society or an unfree society," but close behind ideas is character: "people who don't have high character...they're not likely to be free. They're not fit to be free."
Free speech, he argues, is "the verbal manifestation of the freedom to think"—without it "you might as well be a robot," or in North Korea where "just thinking something and saying it can get you thrown in prison or worse." Addressing critics who dismiss the founders for not abolishing slavery immediately, Larry warns against "presentism"—judging the past by present standards, comparing it to putting the Wright Brothers in a courtroom asking "what good are you?" because their plane lacked tray tables and Wi-Fi.
In closing, he offers inspiration from Valley Forge: those soldiers weren't freezing and starving for iPhones or gourmet meals but "for a principle of individual liberty. That's exciting stuff. Life without liberty is just absolutely unthinkable."
Delve deeper into Larry’s work at: https://www.lawrencewreed.com/
