Saturday, December 16, 2023

Liberty essential, worth fighting for

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for November 12, 2023)




All sides that don't prioritize liberty are the same.

Excuses don't matter. If you're angry about the other side doing something which violates liberty, but you justify your side violating liberty in some other way, you're not helping.

It's not Democrat vs. Republican, nor "Left vs. "Right". It comes down to liberty vs slavery. It may be "slavery-light" instead of what you've been trained to consider slavery, but is gentle slavery better?

Most people are so motivated to find ways to keep others under control they'll sacrifice their own liberty to the cause.

If you really want the liberty to live your faith, but are willing to use the violence of government to prevent people of another faith from doing the same, don't whine when the tables are turned. And the tables will turn-- just wait.

When one political side uses government against those trying to move freely from place to place, to ingest what they choose, or to love who they love, they are every bit as much the enemy of liberty as the political side looking to criminalize the tools of defense, censor, or portray a segment of the population as "colonizers". Both are the enemy of humanity.

Cars, guns, words, and beliefs can all be misused to hurt or kill innocent people. If you want to punish the innocent for the misdeeds of others, you are setting a pattern which will be used against you. If not next year, then soon. There is no excuse to ban anything or to allow government to control anything.

Government is used to kill more people than all the lesser dangers combined, yet I wouldn't use something like government legislation to ban government. I can't imagine anything sillier. There is no way to use government correctly-- every use is a misuse. Instead I would defend myself from those using government against individuals, and encourage others to do the same. There will always be bad people doing bad things. It is up to each of us to fight back.

Regardless of what those addicted to control will say, liberty is essential to the survival of our species. Is it safe? No. Life never is. Is the risk worth it? Without the slightest shadow of a doubt, it is.

Like Thomas Jefferson, "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." Liberty is worth fighting for.

-
I need at least another $120 per month.
I couldn't do this without your support.