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If you could identify all of the reasons for liberty, on how many fingers would you count? Would it be utilitarian; that it produces the most goods, the best quality goods, and at the lowest cost? Would it be that freedom is the only role proper to man given his natural propensities? Would it be that it allows for the most diversity, most job-specifications, and fosters the growth of new ideas?
There are innumerable benefits that we could name. In the face of an adversary, the best supporting evidence you can give is its foundation: reason itself. Libertarianism and individualism are the only consistent philosophies to be offered. If you believe in it, you need not know the details of each government program, need not know the costs vs. the benefits of a given piece of legislation and how it affects a myriad of separate people or a demographic as a whole—although you probably will. It provides such a concrete substratum on which to base all of your decisions and your judgment calls.
Some political philosophies rest on quicksand; liberty rests on bedrock. It is the only idea that starts from self-ownership and deduces from it the most logical conclusion. That is, that each man is an end in himself. Property can only be acquired by his effort or voluntary trade with men who are also capable of sustaining themselves. If each man is not an end in himself, than what is he an end to? Towards what? He is an end to something or someone else. To whom? To what? If it is from a diety, the person has no way of knowing his chosen destiny. The best he can do is what he thinks is best and in this he will be following Gods’ plan. If it is from a priest representing the diety, he has not the resources to know the words are true. Should he not follow the light he feels in his heart over this Earthly voice of Gods will? Should the State and its agents tell each individual what to do and how to live? This negates not only religious institutions idea that only God could know what each person must do, but it also negates the fact that the State can only draw its resources from its pocket. How do you justify one entity having a higher power and knowledge of what need be done than those who supply such entity with the energy to accomplish it? It is akin to my giving you a blood transfusion and then claiming that I owe you my life. This cannot be right. You could not continue to exist without my help.
For whatever evil Kant has unleashed onto the world, of which I know little, he has put far more aptly the idea that you should “treat other as you would be treated.” He has said: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” It is not proper for each person to dispose of others for their own purposes. If everybody acted according to such laws, if all people believed they owned their brethren, we would bring our species to the brink of extinction in no time at all, killing ourselves off before Global Warming, before nuclear apocalypse, before evolution demand our niche be filled by another. We would foster raping, pillaging, and violence the likes of which a human mind and body could never handle.
In all of its glory and gorgeous justification, we can say that it is the only metaphysical ideal that is so fully united with itself and whose practitioners can be married to it it until the end of times, in each decision. It is the only ideal one can give themselves too completely without falsifying the mind. It leaves us human while making us feel like the God of our own world.
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125 views4 Responses to “Liberty: The True Axiom”
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Steven Vasquez Says:
October 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pmWow, this is amazingly insightful. Great writer, reasonofliberty.com. I look forward to her next piece.
GP Says:
October 27th, 2009 at 4:36 pmI am not sure why it was posted incmplete earlier?..Let hope this time it will get through..
How do you justify one entity having a higher power and knowledge
of what need be done than those who supply such entity with the energy to accomplish it?
==>Are u taking a dig at Govt or “The Almighty (God)” :) ? - I don’t understand, why Libertians think of Govt. as some sort of monster. In fact, its made up from ppl like u and me with some elevated privileges to take
decisions for the bettterment of society.If they are failing in some department then obviously its a job of citizens to make them pay for it through democratic means.
But if ur in denial of “Necessity of existence of Govt.” then I guess ur definitely heading towards chaos. (as it will result into lack of discipline, disrespect and insensitivity towards other fellow humans in the name of “righteous selfishness”,lack of rules n regulations as it wud be termed as “hindrance to Liberty” )
If ur talking about “God” as entity who is been granted all the unnecessary “superpower status” by ppl then I guess ur mistaken! Its a matter of faith.
If u dnt have faith in God’s will( read - fate/destiny), be content with idea i.e. “I am controlling my own destiny” -( which I guess true to some extent as some things are simpley beyond our control)
Amelia Vreeland Says:
October 30th, 2009 at 3:58 pmI was talking of government.
And you are quite right, government is just a group of individuals like you are I. Why, then, do you attribute to them some knowledge for the betterment of society when you think that without government people would devolve into total chaos? If that is the natural tendency of humans, doesn’t it follow from you logic that government, since it is without accountability to its own actions, living in a self-perpetuating anarchy with which they have “lack of discipline, disrespect and insensitivity towards other fellow humans”? For you and I, without the barrel of the gun behind us, we have to live by economic means and social power. We have to work for ourselves and all of those things which we care about it and can only do it by expending our own efforts. What of those who go into politics? They are people who decided that, instead of working their hardest to institute change by their own will and in their own will, they would prefer to do it through the means of coercion. Are these the people to whom we should entrust our well being?
I am asserting there is no necessity for government.
“Do those worshippers of government believe that free persons will cease to act? Does it follow that if we receive no energy from the law, we shall receive no energy at all? Does it follow that if the law is restricted to the function of protecting the free use of our faculties, we will be unable to use our faculties? Suppose that the law does not force us to follow certain forms of religion, or systems of association, or methods of education, or regulations of labor, or regulations of trade, or plans for charity; does it then follow that we shall eagerly plunge into atheism, hermitary, ignorance, misery, and greed? If we are free, does it follow that we shall no longer recognize the power and goodness of God? Does it follow that we shall then cease to associate with each other, to help each other, to love and succor our unfortunate brothers, to study the secrets of nature, and to strive to improve ourselves to the best of our abilities?”
What is it that makes you think so grimly of humanity and so highly of those divine humans who are employed by the State?
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