by Robert Gore
Liberty is never an accident. It requires a philosophical acceptance of an individual’s right to his or her own life, and a full understanding of the logical implications and consequences of that right. That acceptance must prevail among intellectuals and through their explanation and leadership, embraced and promoted by a substantial portion of the population. A set of governing institutions has to be devised that are subordinated to the protection of individual rights but strong enough to protect those rights. The difficulties are borne out by history, where attempts to establish political orders based on liberty are few, and their successful and lasting establishment nonexistent.
The argument is made that humanity is unfit for liberty—individuals are incapable of living their own lives peaceably with other individuals. This is true for some individuals, but it has been pronounced as an indictment of the entire species. Because humanity is unfit for freedom, the argument invariably runs, coercion is justified. In other words, individuals—who cannot be trusted with the freedom to peaceably live their own lives—can be given the power to forcibly direct other people’s lives. Chaos, violence, and a world at the brink of epochal collapse are the direct consequences of that inane formulation, yet never has humanity seemed less likely to embrace liberty.
That was nothing short of excellent and thank you for posting it.
Those who are in fact unfit to live in liberty, are exclusively the ones claiming that liberty is a false paradigm, and demanding that they be given control over society.
The irony of this is rooted in their overwhelming pride, which serves the dual function of 1) making them unfit to live in liberty, as well as 2) rendering them incapable of recognizing that anyone might possess any of the various and sundry human capacities for which they are so profoundly lacking.