A Declaration of Freedom from the Tyranny of Comfort

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to confront not the chains imposed by rulers but the chains they clasp upon themselves, and to assume among the powers of the earth the liberty which truth itself demands, a decent respect for reason requires that they declare the causes which impel them to this rupture.

That mankind are endowed with dignity as participants in the Logos, which is from God Almighty;
That freedom is inseparable from truth and cannot be bartered for security nor exchanged for ease without corruption of the soul.

We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident

That mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. — Declaration of Independence (1776)

That most people want slavery—they just want to be comfortable. And when freedom brings discomfort, they rush back to their cage, deluding themselves by calling discomfort “slavery” and safety “freedom,” because a “nice and safe” cage feels like liberty. — Guy Swann (Nostr, May 23, 2025)

That to make a contented slave, one must darken his moral and mental vision until he accepts slavery as right; yet when conditions improve, his desire for freedom intensifies. — Frederick Douglass

That encountering a sleeping slave who dreams of freedom demands waking him—not to placate his dream, but to reveal the truth of liberty. — Khalil Gibran

That what men call license masquerades as freedom, but license—unchecked desire—is itself a new form of bondage. — Fyodor Dostoevsky

That the human spirit often prefers equality in servitude to inequality in freedom, a perverse inversion of the natural order. — Alexis de Tocqueville

That those who deny freedom to others forfeit their own claim to it. — Abraham Lincoln

That freedom’s very atmosphere is transformative—its breath alone casts off the chains. — William Cowper

Grievances Against the Tyranny of Comfort

• Cowardice – It has persuaded men that safety is the highest good, teaching them to flee discomfort rather than endure hardship for the sake of truth.
• Conformity – It has trained men to bow before custom, mistaking the familiar for the just.
• Complacency – It has dulled the conscience, causing people to endure chains so long as they are padded. (Douglass)
• Self-Deception – It has renamed indulgence as freedom and bondage as security. (Swann, Dostoevsky)
• Envy – It has flattered men with equality in servitude, leading them to prefer uniform mediocrity over the unequal excellence of genuine freedom. (Tocqueville)
• Will to Power – It has tempted men to deny freedom to others, disguising domination as protection. (Lincoln)
• Forgetfulness – It has suppressed the very memory of liberty, lest the breath of freedom cause the chains to fall away. (Cowper)

Therefore

Whenever comfort becomes the idol of a people, reducing them to contented servitude, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such illusions and to guard their future security with truth.

We, therefore, in acknowledgment of the Logos, which is from God Almighty and orders all reality, declare that freedom is not comfort, safety, or license, but alignment with truth itself. To live in freedom is to bear the weight of responsibility and to endure the suffering that truth demands, for only through such fidelity does human dignity remain intact.

And for the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the Logos, we pledge our lives, our labor, and our honor.