FREEDOM

If you ask people if they believe in freedom, the vast majority will say they do.
If you’re marooned on an island, you’re certainly free, free to think, free to talk to yourself and free to do whatever you want. But you’re not free to ignore reality. If you want to survive you will have to use your mind and your body – you will have to think and act. You will have to build or find shelter, find water and find or hunt for food.
But we are not marooned on an island. We live in a society where your rights can be violated. And again, the vast majority will say we need a government to protect our right to freedom, protect our right to life and property. It’s the government’s responsibility to create a police force to protect us from criminals, to establish courts to settle disputes and to maintain an armed forces to protect us from foreign aggression.
It’s a government’s job to protect our freedom, but around the world they are or are becoming the greatest threat to our freedom, the greatest threat to individual rights. Every level of government has little or no respect for your right to life and property. Without the right to property, you don’t have a right to your life.
Municipal governments tell developers that they can build their tower, if they also build a library across the street – extortion. Provincial, state and federal governments offer incentives to huge conglomerates to locate their factories in their jurisdiction – bribery. Dictators and would-be dictators threaten their detractors with death, trumped up criminal charges and law suits. And again, the vast majority is okay with this. After all, what are a few threats and a little bribery and extortion?
What is the cause and the cure for this insane march towards totalitarianism?
Click on the link for the cause – a 1 minute read.
At the end of that post is a link to the cure – a 3 minute read.
https://www.rationalselfinterest.com/post/altruist