The Dissidents FSF Ep. 38: Celebrating the Declaration: Free Speech & Liberty’s Reset Button | Scott Schiff
"If you can't state the truth, you can't really pursue it either." Scott, project coordinator with the Atlas Society and partner with the Free Society Coalition, left his comfortable career in financial services after a health scare made him realize it was "worth spending my time left advocating for the future I hope for."
Drawing parallels between Thomas Paine's revolutionary Common Sense and today's censorship crisis, Scott argues the Declaration of Independence isn't just nostalgia—it's "a kind of reset button for dialogue" that can help us overcome our increasingly fractured society. He explores how John Locke's "life, liberty and property" evolved into Jefferson's pursuit of happiness, why "at a certain point, you're a slave" if you can't say what you want, and how the wars of religion ultimately birthed the Enlightenment ideas that shaped America's founding. Scott envisions massive "Liberty Revival" gatherings where citizens hash out ethical principles and free speech guidelines—holding everyone to a single standard without double standards based on historical grievances.
**Note: Scott also wants to clarify that in his comments on Michael Jordan that he “was making a point about how a health or any other kind of scare can sometimes be useful to reassess our values.”
From the financial services industry to blues band frontman to freedom advocate, Scott reminds us that sometimes you need to get yourself "worked up" and ready to fight for the world you want to live in, because waiting for perfect conditions means liberty loses by default.
Learn more about the Free Society Coalition at: https://www.freesocietycoalition.org/