Arguing the case for Liberty is never easy. People say they want to be free and know they should be free. It is the means by which we want to get there that is misguided. We will willfully violate Liberty as a means to achieve a free society.

The idea that we can violate Liberty in order to have Liberty is ridiculous. The Western world has taken freedom for granted. We know that a free society is the only humane way to live. What we don’t know realize is that our societies have become less free over time–less humane.

Not only have we not kept our houses in order but, we go around telling everyone else how they should live. Those living in glass houses should not throw stones. We force our way of life on everyone else and expect them to like it. We forget that Liberty means we can live one way and our neighbors another.

We have decided that temporary safety is more important than lasting Liberty. Whether the monsters are terrorists or financial crises, we want protection from them at the expense of our freedoms. So while we say we respect personal Liberties, we act in the exact opposite.

We should stop lying to ourselves and admit it: we don’t believe in freedom. We just give it lip service. Deep down we may still know that Liberty is right but, we have lost our understanding and respect for Liberty. The following are seven reasons for Liberty that will try to reawaken the free spirit inside all of us.

1. People Should be Free

We know that people should be free but, we don’t know why. Even as politicians take away our Liberties, they tell us that “freedom will be defended”. The irony is that governments historically never–and still do not–defend freedom. It is not in their nature.

We forget, as we repeat to ourselves that people should be free, that a free person should be allowed to do what he or she wants so long as it does not inflict harm on another. We say people should be free but then we support laws against marijuana, minimum drinking ages, and a slew of other laws that tell people what to do.

There are certainly bigger fish to fry than drinking ages but, if you fail to respect Liberty under more minor infringements, how principled will you be when it comes to bigger issues? It is a slippery slope. Any violation of Liberty is an act of enslavement.

If people should be free, there should be no laws governing personal choice. Laws should only exist to rectify situations where someone violates another person’s Liberty. It is not the right of the collective to tell everyone else what to do and how to do it.

2. Goodwill Cannot be Forced

People naturally want to help others. It makes us feel good. It is more rewarding than spending money on ourselves–although that feels pretty good too. Helping others is a voluntary choice. Once we take away the voluntary aspect, it is no longer help and certainly not goodwill.

It is no longer rewarding. We might even despise it. Force turns a good experience into a bad one. This is the case with everything. No one likes to do what they are forced to do. I was a rebellious teenager–I still hate authority.

I never liked being told what to do by my parents. They were right sometimes and wrong sometimes but, that was never the point. When our freedom of choice is taken away, everything tastes bitter. So why do we think that making “good behavior” a law will lead people to do good things?

Everyone has causes they support. It might not be the cause you and I support but, who are we to say that our cause is more important? When we tax the population and use their money for causes that would otherwise not have received such funding, we are forcing non-believers to support these causes.

That is no difference than going into a person’s home and threatening them with prison if they did not write a check to our causes. The end result may still be money donated to help someone somewhere but, we don’t see the resentment from the “donator” and the causes that will not receive enough funding because its supporters were forced to donate elsewhere.

The costs of using force outweigh the benefits and is an intrusion on Liberty.

3. Prosperity Thrives in Freedom

There are those who consider Liberty to only mean personal or civil Liberty. Then, there are those who believe Liberty only applies to the free use of their property and money–free markets. Liberty is both. There should never be a soul in the world who can tell you how to spend your money. You can spend all of it on big houses and fast cars. You can donate all of it to charity.

Your money, your choice. The person who spends all of his or her money on luxury items will soon find that they have no more money. It was enjoyable while it lasted but, none of us can print money. If we do not work or are not putting our money to work productively, we cannot spend frivolously.

It is the individual who uses money to improve society that gets the greatest and longest lasting reward. Those who just squander wealth will soon find that they no longer have it.

Freedom to use our money as we choose leads to the greatest benefit for society. Those who are wasteful are punished by the flow of money from their hands into those who can better use it. Money is only collected by those who are benefiting society. They offer a product or service that has lasting demand because it makes people’s lives better.

A scam can only last so long. A fad can only last so long. The money received or lost from a scam or a fad is real but, people are designed to learn from mistakes. While a fool and his money can be easily parted, a fool will still wise up.

When a force enters the picture and forces the flow of money in a direction that it deems best, there is no longer the freedom to use our money as we see fit. It is then no longer clear if those receiving vast amounts of money are benefiting society or if this force is just funneling it their way.

There are those who say a guiding hand is necessary to direct resources to projects that bring future prosperity. Certainly, these projects may bring future prosperity but, at what cost? How is a single individual or a group of individuals supposed to know which projects are best? What if there were other means that would have been better and would have been developed had it not been for the forced flow of money into other less beneficial projects?

The only entity that can best direct money to the most useful projects are the collective decisions of the masses on a daily basis. The freedom to use our money the way we see best is the means by which society prospers most.

4. Liberty is Colorblind

Liberty respects the individual because our rights are not granted by government or any man-made higher authority. Our rights are natural and are ours from birth. To this degree, it does not matter what color, size, or shape we are.

No one has less rights or more rights because of their physical attributes or family fortunes. People are not to be categorized as belonging to this group or that group but, as individuals. You are no less free to live the way you choose than I am.

There are factors that limit how we live such as financial standing or physical handicaps. My life is not the same as your life. Lives are rarely–if ever–equal. However, life is always fair. We get just as many opportunities to do well for ourselves as we do to lose everything we were given.

Being born into a specific ethnicity is a game of chance. There is no way to choose beforehand. You have as good a chance of being born into one ethnicity as an another. The cards that we were dealt may differ but, our opportunity to use them well or poorly is entirely up to us.

A society that understands Liberty would never use force–government actions–to give one group an advantage over another. Fairness is not measured by how much we can handicap those we envy or despise. It is about how free we are to use what we have to get to a better place.

5. Theft is Always Wrong

Virtually everyone agrees that stealing is wrong. People generally do not steal from their neighbor or rob a bank. We know it is wrong. However, we lose sight of this when we empower government to do the stealing on our behalf.

When we use government, it is suddenly okay. In actuality, it is not okay. Theft is theft no matter what channels we go through.

If I threaten a person with violence and force them to give me their wallet, we know that this is clearly wrong. If I petition government to provide me with unemployment pay after I lose my job, no one sees this to be wrong.

It is wrong and it is a form of theft. We just cannot easily see who we have stolen from. The victims would be every citizen who works and pays taxes. I wouldn’t go to the local businesses and homes and demand payment because I lost my job. So why would I tell government to do it for me?

This is why income taxes–and virtually all taxes–are an act against Liberty. No form of aggressive force is compatible with Liberty. Theft is an aggressive force.

Friends, family, and kind strangers can choose to help me when I’m in a tough situation. They can also choose not to help me. Either way, I need to find a way to get back on my feet. It might not be easy but, only I am responsible for me.

6. I Belong to Me

The idea that my life belongs to me is the foundation of Liberty. Everything else is derived from this concept. No one has the right to tell me how I should live because I own my life. I am free to destroy myself through drug and alcohol abuse. I am also free to try and live forever by being meticulous about what I put in my body.

The acts of doing well or doing poorly to myself are nobody’s business but mine. The only time it is a problem is if I try to force others to live the way I do or harm others while I’m living the way I do.

While we only think that people on drugs or alcohol can harm others, it would be shortsighted to say that some other addiction–less frowned upon by society–is not just as bad. We are no more allowed to physically harm others for eating meat if we find it savage than we are to attack someone because we are under the influence.

We cannot force others to join our religious beliefs and certainly cannot harm others who vehemently disagree with our views. While I belong to me, you also belong to you.

7. Peace Can Only Coexist With Liberty

Peace is something people have tried to achieve for as long as time. It is never a good idea to fight if you don’t have to. The risk of hurting yourself is no less than the risk of hurting your opponent. The best approach for both parties is to avoid harm–and possibly death.

This is why peaceful cooperation is always more beneficial to everyone involved. Peace can only be achieved where Liberty thrives. Where Liberty is not understood, the collective or an elite group want everyone else to live their way.

The only means to do this is to use force. It may be war or it may be threat of prison, fines, or execution. None of which are peaceful. Peace requires no threat of force, threats of any kind, or force of any kind.

While one is clearly justified to defend themselves from an aggressive force, it is not justified to then harm the attacker with an equally aggressive force. It is always our right to defend our life but, not our right to take the life away from an attacker after successfully protecting ourselves.

An eye for an eye will leave us all blind.

Only in a society where we understand and respect Liberty can there be peace. A society that is built on theft and force is destined to result in violent revolution from those who have been wronged.

By Tommy Leung

Tags: colorblind, Economic, free, free market, Free society, freedom, goodwill, Government, individualism, Liberty, peace, Population, prosperity, raceblind, theft, Wealth, Western world

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