Freedom’s Extinction
May 6, 2026 in News by RBN Staff
source: newswithviews
By Paul Engel
May 6, 2026
- “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
- Will this be the last free generation in the United States.
- I think the evidence supports that possibility.
Ronald Reagan once said that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Is this the generation when that finally happens? You may think I’m being hyperbolic, but I think the evidence supports the possibility that this is true.
The Last Free Generation
Of all the famous speeches Ronald Reagan delivered during his political career, I can think of none other that is so needed and important to Americans today than his Encroaching Control speech. This is an excerpt from that 1961 speech, and should be replayed and reheard these 65 years later.
But freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.
Ronal Reagan, “Encroaching Control”, March 30, 1961
Why do I think revisiting this old speech is so important? For the simple reason that by observing society, politics, and the news today, I have to wonder if this is the generation Mr. Reagan was warning us about. Will this be the last generation in America to live free? I’m sure many people reading this may think I’m being hyperbolic, or exaggerating to generate clicks. But I beg you, follow along and see if my question is as outrageous as you think.
Education
As I look back, seeking the source of our abandonment of freedom, I think I see its origins in how we educate our children.
The first public schools in America were created in the New England colonies in 1647. In 1779, Thomas Jefferson promoted the idea in Virginia to shift education from private to public schools, arguing that without an educated populace, kings, priests, and nobles would arise. By the 1930s, public schools had become entrenched in America, paid for mostly by property taxes and expanded by mandatory attendance laws. The mid-20th century brought increasing federal involvement in public schools, starting with the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which brought federal dollars to public schools. And where federal dollars go, federal influence is right behind. Then, in 1980, the United States Department of Education was created, bringing not only money, but federal regulation to education. During this time, our “public schools” were transformed from locally controlled institutions of education into government run entities. Education became less and less about teaching the child, and more and more about government indoctrination.
For as long as I have found in my research, public schools have acted in loco parentis, or in place of the parents. Originally, it was understood that the public school had a duty to protect the child while in their custody. As government control over education grew, especially as it expanded into the federal government, this duty to protect the child in the place of the parent has morphed into protecting the child from the parent. What was originally a duty to protect a child from abusive parents soon expanded in protecting children from the ideals of the parents that were not considered Politically Correct.
Political Correctness
In the 1980s the idea of political correctness became a hot topic for Americans. At the same time, lauded by some and targeted by comedians, it was thought political correctness was the evolution of American society into a kinder, gentler nation. That was a lie, because political correctness was a demon from the world’s past.
The term first appeared in Marxist-Leninist vocabulary following the Russian Revolution of 1917. At that time it was used to describe adherence to the policies and principles of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (that is, the party line).
Political Correctness – Britannica
The term “political correctness” does not come from a desire to not offend people, but from communist methods of controlling them through their speech. After decades of fighting communism, the American people began adopting their methods by first chastising, and then vilifying, any speech that was not deemed politically correct. We went from a nation of “live and let live” to one where others, many for political reasons, tried to control our speech. And in large part, they succeeded.
Today, if you peacefully demonstrate outside a pro-life pregnancy center, you’re generally left alone. Hold the same demonstration outside an abortion clinic and you can be arrested and charged with a violation of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act). Want to make wedding cakes, flower arrangements, websites, or photographs supporting “gay-marriage” and you’re fine, but in many states and cities if you decline to do so, you can be brought before a “civil rights council” or a similarly new-speak entity for fines and punishment. Want to open a retail business? Most states and cities have passed laws effectively taking control of your property simply because you open it to the public.
In short, the American people, as a whole, have traded their liberty in exchange for not being called names and punished for their thoughts that are not politically correct.
September 11th, 2001
Like most Americans old enough to remember 9/11, it was a day that changed our lives forever. Not just the attacks, but our response to it. As Benjamin Franklin said:
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.
Benjamin Franklin
The American people have shown we deserve neither liberty nor safety. Why? Because we gave up so many essential liberties for a false promise of temporary safety. The one we most often see is the Transportation Security Administration. What was once a simple trip to the airport is now an hours long gauntlet through check points, screenings, and searches that, if conducted anywhere else, would have people up in arms over their Fourth Amendment rights. And what did we get for all of the liberties we gave up?
An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned.
EXCLUSIVE: Undercover DHS Tests Find Security Failures at US Airports – ABC News
Deserve it or not, it looks like we get neither liberty nor security.
Hidden and more insidious infringements on our rights is The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). While the act was originally passed in 1978, after 9/11 it was supercharged. Congress granted law enforcement the power to spy on Americans under the guise of foreign surveillance. Little discussed are the “loopholes” built into this legislation, claiming it is necessary to infringe on the rights of Americans to keep us safe. For example, do you know that if you are on a mailing list with a foreign national who is under investigation and you send an email to that list, you are now under investigation as well? It doesn’t even have to be you on the list, because federal law enforcement can look three contacts away. Which means that news article your uncle Charlie forwarded you from his Army buddy who happens to know a guy oversees that is under surveillance, just opened you up to surveillance as well. And every few years, Congress decides to reauthorize this foreign and domestic spying operation.
COVID-19
Probably the greatest example of freedom dying in American history has to be COVID. Not the disease, but our reaction to it. After the announcement of what was originally called the “Wuhan Flu,” the propaganda started flying. People who claimed that COVID was created in a lab in China were quickly labeled xenophobic and the powers that be, political, public, and private, were brought to bear to silence dissent from the government-approved position, regardless of the evidence they brought. Then some bureaucrat told people they should put cloth on their face and stand 6′ apart, and the people did, most without question. Then the CDC authorized an experimental treatment, one that had never been tried in humans before and without proper safety testing, all because it was an emergency. Then we found out that the “emergency” was largely generated by inflated infection and death numbers, generally focused on a limited demographic of the population. Yet if any questioned the government narrative of “safe and effective,” they were labeled “anti-vaccers”, kooks, and crack-pots. And once again, the American people lined up like lemmings to follow the instructions of their government overlords. In the most striking example of our voluntary submission to illegal orders, President Biden stated in a press conference that he was going to sign an executive order requiring all corporations with more than 100 employees establish vaccine mandates. Corporations small and large all but fell over themselves establishing said mandates even though such an order was blatantly illegal and never even signed by the then President. And when actual doctors found existing products like Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine showed effectiveness in treating COVID-19, they were not only vilified in the media, but many were stripped of their license for questioning government orthodoxy. So much for freedom of speech and the liberty to decide what goes into your body.
Conclusion
If you’ve followed me this far, I hope you see why I’m concerned about the future of freedom in America. While politicians, pundits, and bureaucrats have done a lot of things restricting our freedoms and infringing on our rights in my lifetime, they do not hold the majority of the blame. That is because we haven’t lost our freedom because of rules, regulations, or laws, and not because of political correctness, 9/11, or COVID. We’ve lost our freedom because We the People have capitulated with the illegal demands of others. It wasn’t government that took away our rights; we gave them up when we allowed them to coerce us into compliance.
Is all hope lost? Have we condemned future generations to servitude? Have we abandoned our freedom beyond redemption? No, not as long as there are still free Americans willing to place their liberty above the false promises of the politician, bureaucrat, and pundit.
How? How do we reclaim our birthright of liberty? How do we restore our legacy of freedom to those who come after us? Ronald Reagan gave us a clue.
The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.
Ronal Reagan, “Encroaching Control”, March 30, 1961
“That sounds great Paul, but how do we do it?” First, you have to stop believing the lie that you can’t fight city hall. We the People created these governments, so We the People can fix them. These governments were created for one purpose, as the Declaration of Independence says:
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That same Declaration tells us how to deal with governments that don’t secure our rights.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
By this point you’re probably saying “Great words, Paul, but what do we do?” I believe the answer comes from the First Chief Justice of the United States:
Every member of the State ought diligently to read and to study the constitution of his country, and teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better prepared to defend and assert them.
John Jay, First Chief Justice of the United States
We start by diligently reading and studying the Constitution of the United States. Notice, John Jay didn’t say that every lawyer, judge, and politician should read the Constitution, but that you and me should. He didn’t say we should hand the rising generation over to government to teach them to be free; that’s our job. Why should we do all this? How can you fight for, protect, and defend your rights, your freedom, and your liberty, if you don’t recognize when those rights are violated? How can we defend our right to live free if we haven’t prepared to do so? How can we hand a free country to our children if we can’t even defend it ourselves?
I’ve already been telling this generation “what it once was like in America when men were free.” If you’re my age, you probably have too. The question is, will we be the generation that allows freedom and liberty slip through our fingers? Will we stand by while those who’ve never lived in a truly free nation march head-long into servitude? Will we fail at the task given us by our forefathers and let the sacred fire of liberty go dark?
And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
George Washington’s First Inaugural Address, 1789
The answer to that question lands firmly on your shoulders. You may not be able to save the country, your state, or even your county. If you can keep the sacred fire of liberty burning though, even if it is only in your own home, then there is a spark that can once again engulf this nation with a burning desire to live free. And the only way I know to keep that sacred fire alive is to diligently read and study the Constitution, teach the rising generation to be free, recognize when are rights are being violated, and be prepared to defend and assert them.
I’m ready to fight for freedom… Are you?
© 2026 Paul Engel – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Paul Engel: paul@constitutionstudy.com
