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Liberty comes in 2 parts, rights and RESPONSIBLITIES. Everybody loves the rights, few seem to take on the responsibilities part any more. I have a responsibility to maintain the rights of my neighbor as well as myself. While I have a right to have a junk yard I do not have the right to pollute his land and water with my junk yard. As long as my junk stays confined within my property I am maintaining my neighbor’s rights. My neighbor may not like my junk yard but until it harms him he has no right to tell me what to do with it.
Read the column here at CDP's place.
Kerodin
III
And that has been the heart of more than a few conversations of late.
ReplyDeleteLiberty, more specifically, the responsibilities demanded from liberty, are scary to many in our nanny driven country.
The laws we see now are due in no small part to the fact that many want someone else to be responsible for keeping everything in line. They don't want to have to be the one to 'step on toes' or 'correct the issue'. "Thats what the cops are for" is something I hear so frequently amongst the mundano.
I could go on and on but at this point, the reset button seems the only prevalent way to get people to wake up to adulthood (or die trying)
Interesting article. It brings up that whole vote or don't vote question again. Not voting doesn't solve anything, but voting seems to legitimize mob rule. For example, a vote to raise property taxes so the local .gov types can keep their good paying jobs and pensions. If I don't vote, does it mean I object to the question or that I just don't care. If I do vote, does it mean that I'm expressing my opposition but at the same time appearing to agree that the mob has a legitimate right to decide how much of my property to take? The old "well, you voted so you have to live with the results" argument.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the Rights AND Responsibilities position and the Jeffersonian definition of Liberty. I go back and forth on the voting question, usually coming down on the side of voting. However, the "giving legitimacy to an illegitimate system" argument still tugs at me frequently.