In Aesop’s fable The Wolf and the House Dog a worn down skinny wolf who rarely gets enough food to eat comes across a fat house dog. It is clear the dog has never felt the hunger the wolf constantly feels. As the two animals talk the dog describes how wonderful his life is and lets the wolf know that he too could enjoy this good life.

Aesop writes: “The wolf had such a beautiful vision of his coming happiness that he almost wept. But just then he noticed that the hair on the dog’s neck was worn and the skin was chafed.”

The wolf inquired about what had caused the marks and the dog let him know it was from his collar that was used to chain the dog.

The wolf could not believe the dog consented to wearing a chain. The Dog saw no issues as he was fat and well cared for. Once the wolf saw that the price to be well cared for was a chain he exclaimed “I wouldn’t take all the tender young lambs in the world at that price.” The wolf returned to his freedom in the woods.

The wolf understood the value of liberty. The fable serves as a vivid example of this thought expressed by F.A. Hayek “Above all however, we must recognize that we may be free and yet miserable. Liberty does not mean all good things or the absence of all evils. It is true that to be free may mean freedom to starve, to make costly mistakes, or to run mortal risks.” The wolf would rather risk starvation everyday than to live in chains.

The absence of liberty is tyranny. Anytime the coercive power of the state grows stronger individual liberty is weakened. In the immediate aftermath of World War II Berlin was partitioned into two segments. The United States and her western allies controlled one portion of the city while the Soviet Union controlled the other portion of the city. Berlin was located well within East Germany and the Soviet authorities decided that they wanted to control the entire city and began a blockade to force that result.

Prior to the blockade numerous surveys were conducted within the western controlled area of the city to determine if people preferred liberty or economic stability. Resoundingly the respondents favored economic stability. Once the blockade began many feared that all of Berlin would fall under the iron curtain. Soviet propaganda urged Berliners to reunite the city under the red flag. Without the ability to restock the city it was only a matter of time before the western powers would have to withdraw.

It was now 1948 and Berliners were facing the question posed in all those previous surveys. Would they exchange the liberties of democracy for food and communism? They faced the same choice that fat dog presented to the wolf. Wear this chain and you will be fed. Resist the chain and you may starve.

The United States began airlifting food and supplies to Berlin but no one knew for how long or if it would be enough. The people of Berlin rallied together to maintain their freedom.

Andrei Cherny writes in the Candy Bombers: “In later years, Berliners would look back on that winter and remember the hardship—the hunger, the lethargy, the freeze, and the deprivation. But they would also remember those months at the end of 1948 as among the most special of their entire lives, as a time when they treasured the small pleasures of life, rejoiced in the company of their family, celebrated a spirit of fellowship, and drew together in community tighter than they ever had before and ever would again.” They chose dangerous liberty and it united a city.

Today it is vital to remember the value of liberty. The state will always look to expand its power and that expansion can only come at the expense of liberty. The state will couch its encroaching influence in the most humanitarian terms or as a necessity to preserve safety, and the offer is meant to entice you but the result is always a chain around your neck.

Hayek reminds us “It is therefore no argument against individual freedom that it is frequently abused. Freedom necessarily means that many things will be done which we do not like.” However dangerous individual liberty is it pales in comparison to the coercive power of the state. Exercising and defending liberty is the only check on governmental power. Left unchecked the coercive power of the state will be far more destructive than any individual who abuses their liberty.

For perspective it would take 6,446 2017 Las Vegas shootings, where 60 people died, to match the 386,798 people executed under NKVD order 00447 in the Soviet Union. It would take 500 9/11 attacks or 45,454 Virginia Tech shootings just to approach the number of people killed by the Chinese government in the cultural revolution. Dangerous liberty should always be valued above government provided safety. In the end the liberty that would permit a Uvalde massacre is the same liberty that prevents a Tiananmen Square massacre. If ever given the opportunity to vote on the expansion of state power remember the wolf and that individual liberty can make all the difference in the world.