This is the last bit of prep work before my deconstruction of the misinformation in Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny. To recap, my conservative nephew suspected that there was misinformation in this book and he asked me to evaluate it a few weeks back. It did not fit into my agenda for The Middle Class Forum at the time, and then there were a few posts I needed to make for “prep” work such as:
An overview of misinformation principles
A basic understanding of free markets
A basic understanding of property
This last entry is to provide a basic understanding liberty. I’ve posted much on liberty already, such as this series here, but this entry will present a model that provides a contrast between liberty as indulgence and liberty as being independent.
That we should be indulged by paternal sources does not come naturally. Few people prefer to live with their parents, even though this provides more material wealth and security than living independently. Young newlyweds may wish to establish some lifelines with the folks from home, but something about human nature draws us to facing life on our own terms, without being indulged. What is natural also tends to be healthy. There is something unhealthy about being indulged by parents or government. We live apart from parents to maximize the independence of our own thoughts, our own associations and our own plans for what we want to be.
There might seem to be little wrong with indulgences provided by paternal government or corporations except that, as with living with your parents, we sacrifice independence. Leading up to the 2008 election the media interviewed a blue-collar worker in Connecticut about taxes. The citizen responded: “Why tax the wealthy? They provide jobs.” Why, indeed! We are not to become entrepreneurs in the communities of our choice; we are to depend on the largesse of corporations however often they may move us around. There is but one short step from that sort of paternal indulgence to one of bailing out corporations “too big to fail.”
There are three basic indulgences government provides: property, security and privacy. None of these occur without some type of power structure providing protection or enforcement (you can go off alone, but that is not the same as being private within a social context). None of these indulgences are problematic out of context, they each add something of value to society. The problems come in the context of government and corporations using them to bribe or extort us out of our independence.
Government cannot provide any type of natural right. By definition we must claim these for ourselves. When we relinquish our natural right to think independently, associate freely or sacrifice who we want to be (such as hating our jobs but loving the money we make), we have the same mindset as those who prefer to live with their parents.
Tags: Liberty and Tyranny, Middle Class Politics, Natural Rights
