Everyone remembers these famous words spoken by Patrick Henry as he chose death over the usurpation of his individual freedoms. Every person eventually comes to that point in their life where the decision of choosing liberty or remaining in enslavement must be made. Those that choose liberty suddenly have a freedom of soul that is difficult to express. Those that choose to stay in bondage, well, stay in bondage.

I had a patient in the office today that is rapidly coming to this very point in his own life. He is currently working in a government position where his pension and benefits are unmatched. But he has realized that the subversive atmosphere he is forced to work in, pays a heavy toll. He can lay awake only so many nights in a row racked by anxiety and fear before his body begins to deteriorate.

Working in a fascist system leaves no room for individual promotion or ingenuity. Everything is done according to a predetermined set of standards, a predetermined system of application, with predetermined results. And any effort to challenge those standards or systems is met with strict predetermined consequences. He knows, he lives there. 

Worse of all, he has no recourse. There is no one above him that is willing to deviate from these standards or systems either. So he needs to make a choice.  Liberty or death; Freedom to grow or a fancy pension; Freedom to fail or security of employment. Sleep or insomnia;

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry,  March 23, 1775