Why Does Freedom Scare People?

THIS question has popped up a bit lately on various Facebook pages, blogs, and the like. "Why does Freedom scare people? Why can't they stand up to the government and DEMAND change?"

So, I have been rolling this around in my cabeza all day. Does Freedom truly scare people, or is it something else entirely? I came up with the following possibilities:

1. People truly are scared to have so much Freedom, and the responsibility that comes with it.
2. People aren't scared, but apathetic to change.
3. People are defeated spiritually, and feel that fighting won't do any good.
4. People ARE fighting, just not for what 'we' think they SHOULD be fighting for.
5. I'm totally off my rocker.

While number five is a distinct possibility, I decided to go a bit more cerebral and dissect this issue. Lets take it one step at a time.

1. PEOPLE TRULY ARE SCARED OF FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
My initial reaction to this was 'nope, cannot be'...but the more I think about it, the more this option shows merit. Have you been involved in a car accident (or stopped to help at one), where someone required immediate First Aid or CPR? Most folks do not want to take the responsibility of stepping up and doing more than is necessary, for fear of failure or criticism. I believe the same applies to our system of government, as well. If the government has less interference in our lives, and thus less control, then we as private citizens have greater responsibility to maintain a standard acceptable to civilized society. So, taking the path of 'Fight or Flight', the majority of people choose flight.

2. PEOPLE AREN'T SCARED, THEY ARE JUST APATHETIC TO CHANGE
While I would hope this to be false, I think that there is a significant portion of the population that feels some apathy towards the government. The point at which this statement becomes unlikely, however, is the motive behind the apathy. The lack of caring is not about change itself, but about the inability to accomplish it. This leads me to my next point.

3. PEOPLE ARE DEFEATED SPIRITUALLY, AND FEEL THAT FIGHTING IS HOPELESS.
Continuing on from number 2, above, I would say that this is a very common trend. How many times have people told you "its just the way it is" or "what can you do?" This is what I like to call the JOHN GALT Syndrome. When a pervasive feeling of inability to control the events of their reality hits a people group, and they just let the minority (i.e. the Government) do whatever they choose, bad things happen. It is the nature of Government to press for as much control of the constituency as it can, and thus 'manage' the people. Considering our government, by design, is supposed to 'fear' the people, the fact that the reverse is happening is very disconcerting indeed.

4. PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING, JUST FOR DIFFERENT CAUSES THAN MINE.
I think this plays its part in the original question, as well. Obviously, not everyone thinks the same, or has the same moral code. The beauty of our system of government is that we can still work together despite our differences, and no particular group is left out. I do, however, see numerous references to 'Tea Party' gatherings, 'grassroots' movements, and the like, and most of them have large elements of libertarianism in their core beliefs. The problem there is, I think, most folks do not even KNOW what a libertarian is. The news media marginalizes everything but the two major parties (which is sad, considering those two parties are now so much alike it is hard to tell them apart...but that's a conversation for another blog post). The Libertarian Party, for instance, is always used as a punchline or footnote in political discussions.

CONCLUSION

So, I don't think the main problem is that folks in America are scared of Freedom or Liberty as much as they do not understand how fast they are losing it...and that they actually CAN fight for it. I believe that if more people would pick up the banner and lead the masses, those masses would jump in line and start speaking up more and more (again, we are seeing this with the Tea Party movement). Do you have it in you to step up and lead?