Living free versus dying

This morning I was reading the latest edition of Imprimis. The essay from Mark Steyn hammers the reality that we are inclined to want many things other than freedom when push comes to shove. From the article:

"Give people plenty and security, and they will fall into spiritual torpor," wrote Charles Murray in In Our Hands. "When life becomes an extended picnic, with nothing of importance to do, ideas of greatness become an irritant. Such is the nature of the Europe syndrome."

The key word here is "give." When the state "gives" you plenty—when it takes care of your health, takes cares of your kids, takes care of your elderly parents, takes care of every primary responsibility of adulthood—it's not surprising that the citizenry cease to function as adults: Life becomes a kind of extended adolescence—literally so for those Germans who've mastered the knack of staying in education till they're 34 and taking early retirement at 42. Hilaire Belloc, incidentally, foresaw this very clearly in his book The Servile State in 1912. He understood that the long-term cost of a welfare society is the infantilization of the population.

I thought of the subject again over lunch with a friend as we discussed the stress of employment and paying bills and most-things-work-related . . . a comfortable, secure, high-quality-of-life job is very appealing at times. Steyn's article, beyond any perceived (or real) relationship to contemporary partisan politics, provides insight into a founding principle of our great republic: Live free or die.