Liberty Is Dangerous

Eric has written a wonderful post on liberty. I’d like to quote the heart of the piece and then add a few words of my own.

…if there is one lesson I have learned from freedom, it’s that there are risks and downsides, and you have to take the good and the bad.

Economies do not always thrive. The American people are acting like a bunch of babies. (Or whiners as Phil Gramm said). Like gays clamoring to shut down the bathhouses once they got AIDS (which some did).

Hedonism, the irresponsible fast lane of freedom, is a high risk activity — whether economic, sexual, or chemical. You cannot have freedom without allowing it, and people are going to get hurt. Ditto, legal guns.

The problem is, no one wants to hear this.

Beyond that, the more the government intervenes (as they did in this economy), the greater the demand for more intervention when intervention fails, which it inevitably will.

True conservatism (at least, the old fashioned kind) involved allowing freedom and encouraging — not mandating — responsibility. It’s AYOR (at your own risk) stuff, and it’s not for children.

Failure in all these things has to be allowed, but the voters want safety nets and will not allow it.

There’s tragedy in this.

The thing is liberty is dangerous even for people who are only bystanders. The Atomic Boy Scout is a prime example. To keep my liberty I’d prefer to take my chances. Life is always a crap shoot. I want the danger and experience of the edge not the safety of the middle of the herd. Every well functioning herd NEEDS some members who like the edge. Those willing to explore unoccupied territory. You squelch liberty and you lose the advantage people on the edge give the herd – mostly bad examples and a few very, very, good ones.

Numerous Darwin Awards or a Police State. Choose