Ronald Regan Said Freedom Must Be Defended by Every Generation—Are We Listening?
Human beings, among other things, highly value comfort and being able to sit back and relax. Honestly, who doesn’t want to take it easy every now and then? In fact, many individuals place such a high premium and importance on comfort that they are willing to shell out large sums of money to help ensure their happiness and contentment, if only for a short time. How else do you explain how airlines consistently get passengers to fork over the extra dough for a first-class ticket?
And let’s be honest, no one is ever going to argue against a little more leg room on that flight to Phoenix, Minneapolis or San Jose. Of course, that’s all based on the assumption and is wholly dependent upon the idea that the additional space to stretch out doesn’t cost you one or more extremities. Anyone who has ever flown understands it’s all about getting from Point A to Point B as quickly and as safely as possible, and, also hopefully (fingers crossed), experiencing more comfort than pain or irritation.
Needless to say, the average human being’s desire and yearning for comfort, happiness and contentment is great. This longing and appetite for comfort is so massive and important that it’s the entire idea, the foundation for the service industry. Waiters, waitresses, bartenders, travel agents and concierges aim to provide their customers with the best possible experience by meeting their immediate needs as quickly as possible. In doing so, by carrying out their job responsibilities, they are providing their customers with comfort and contentment. And if they do it well enough, there might even be a sizable tip in their future.
As much as we may all love being content and comfortable, that’s not always the best, most ideal situation. Sure, if you’re on an extended flight or a long road trip, that’s what we all want. However, being too comfortable for too long causes people to take things for granted and to become lazy and complacent.
When we’re too comfortable for an extended period, we tend to rest on our laurels and quit pushing, cease trying. A belief, one often bordering on arrogance, arises that simply because something was a particular way in the past, that’s simply how things will always be.
This sentiment is true when considering individuals and, most certainly, for nations, and that’s exactly what the late President Ronald Reagan meant when he said that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” adding that “it must be fought for and defended by each generation.”
He understood that freedom, prosperity and liberty are not inherited or passed along in the bloodstream, as he also said. A generation that grows too comfortable and becomes too complacent and too lazy for far too long is likely to lose that precious freedom.
How does this happen? How could a nation, a people who are free to pursue life, liberty and happiness, lose that precious freedom? Well, little by little. With one small, seemingly insignificant decision and move after another. Essentially, it’s death by a thousand cuts.
You cede this and give up that, and soon enough, before you know it, you are no longer able to make this or that choice. Now your choices have been severely limited, or, worse yet, that decision is now being made for you. Once that happens, it’s rather difficult to claw back that power.
Comfort and contentment are nice; we all enjoy them and seek them out regularly or semi-regularly. However, comfort can, and often does, lead to laziness and complacency, causing far too many to become far too happy and satisfied with the status quo.
But what is that comfort worth? Is your personal happiness and comfort worth giving up and sacrificing a little bit of freedom here and there?
Much like Newton’s first law of motion, human beings at rest will tend to stay at rest. So, what should be done to fight against and defeat this natural human tendency towards rest and tranquility?
While this will, without a doubt, sound like an odd suggestion, perhaps we should spend a little bit more time being uncomfortable and avoiding things that breed complacency and stagnation. Because, as the 40th president of the United States said, freedom is never more than one generation away from going extinct and disappearing altogether. So, the question must be asked: Are we listening?
Photo Credit: ©Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Originally published September 22, 2026.
