Thursday, June 12, 2008

Liberty

I am going back to basics because it seems that so few people understand the basics. At least the basics as I understand them; as I mean when I speak of them.

"Liberty" means doing what you want to do as long as you are not harming any innocent person with your actions. It means that YOU own your body and your life and are the sole proprietor thereof. If you destroy yourself, you accept the responsibility and you deal with the consequences. You do not blame others or take the easy way out by becoming a parasite.

"Libertarians" are people to value "liberty" above all else. They are not people who value the "US Constitution" above everything, but they can and do use it to point out how far America has fallen from its early semi-libertarian ideals. Liberty is not possible when there is a government calling the shots. Even a very small, weak government harms liberty. It is just not possible for government to exist without doing so. This is why libertarians are also anarchists. I know there are those who disagree with me. They can take it up with greater experts than me.

"Anarchy" means "no Rulers"; not "no rules". Yes, I know the dictionary also equates it with "chaos", but that is because common, incorrect, usage has burdened the real definition with the faulty one. This has happened with many words because we speak a living, changing language. To have a word that means "'No Rulers'; not 'no rules'" we would need to make up a new word every few years. It is the nature of language and can't be avoided. This is why, when I speak of certain things, I post (somewhere in my blog) what I mean when I use the word. This is one of those cases.


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