The Free Society

The Free Society

Most Americans think they live in a free society. They think that because they can find fifty varieties of salad dressing at the grocery store, choose from among a hundred types of wine at the liquor store, select a television channel from over 1,000 choices, download any movie or song they want from the Internet, and sit at home for hours playing the latest video game that they live in a free society. They are oblivious to the extent of government encroachment on their freedoms. They are complacent when it comes to government edicts. And they are ignorant as to what a free society really means. The truth is, Americans live in a relatively free society, not an absolutely free society. And on top of all that, Americans live in a nanny state. We have a government full of politicians, bureaucrats, and regulators, and a society full of statists, authoritarians, and busybodies, who all want to use the force of government to impose their values, hinder personal freedom, re-make society in their own image, destroy personal and financial privacy, restrict economic activity, compel people to associate with people they may not want to associate with, define and enforce morality, tell you how to live your life, and limit the size of soft drinks you can purchase at a convenience store. The 127 essays in this book make the case for a genuinely free society. Most Americans think they live in a free society. So writes Laurence Vance as the opening sentence in the introduction to this book, a compilation of 127 essays on the topic of a free society. Americans think they are free because of the variety of choices on the grocery store shelf, channels on the television, access to the world via the internet, and the ability to play video games in mom and dad s basement. While we should not discount such features of American society (well, I might discount a couple of these), these are not the only measures of freedom, and Vance demonstrates this through more than 400 pages. It is an insightful introduction. If we are to measure freedom solely via measures of economy and market, there is little to complain about in American society certainly when compared to many other places in the world and most certainly when compared to past times. Further, globally, more people have such freedoms than at any time in history. Other than the abject poor in third-world countries, we all live better than the royalty of even two-hundred years ago. But this isn t freedom, although many libertarians use this as their yardstick. The market comes out quite strongly in the debate regarding immigration, but not solely here. Yet freedom, as Vance demonstrates, is much more than the market. There are several intriguing essays within these chapters. I will touch on a few of these: The Morality of Libertarianism Violence is justified only in defense of person or property against violence. While not a statement of morality as extensive to that offered in the Bible, it seems rather foundational. I wonder what people mean when they say something like I used to be a libertarian, but.... Like what I used to think it was wrong to come upon a stranger and punch him in the nose, but now I think it is OK ? Perhaps the most foundational morality is to be found in the non-aggression principle not the only morality, but it is impossible to imagine a moral society that doesn t embrace this at its foundation. Libertarianism and Abortion Because a child in the womb is helpless, not initiating violence, not committing aggression, and not there of its own accord, I believe, that to be consistent, libertarians should not only be opposed to abortion, but in favor of making it a criminal act... Vance offers that the type of penalty to be imposed is a separate question; the primary issue is the violence initiated against the unborn child. But from a moral standpoint: it is difficult to find any consistency in a non-aggression principle that demands the right to aggress against the most vulnerable and most innocent humans on the planet. If libertarians can make this aggression fit within the NAP, there really is no room to complain about taxes or regulations or drug laws or pretty much anything else. The Right to Refuse Service Every individual and business should have the right to refuse service. In a free society, every individual and business owner would have the right to refuse service. It is part and parcel of the inviolability of private property... We are lectured even by many libertarians to be tolerant. But without tolerance for the property owner s right to discriminate as inviolable, I have no idea what libertarianism even means. I personally find Vance s work on the hypocrisy of Christians on the topic of war as his most valuable, and he has done significant work on this topic. Yet he does not come up short on the topics covered in this book. For anyone interested in gaining an understanding of the meaning of freedom and liberty