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Posts from Jim, Raton NM

Jim, Raton NMJim, Raton NM
Jim, Raton NM

Another excellent definition of liberty:

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Jim, Raton NM

Perhaps this opinion is more to the liking of some folks. Its author believed individuals should subordinate their interestes to that of the collective:

The greater the readiness to subordinate purely personal interests, the higher rises the ability to establish comprehensive communities.... This state of mind, which subordinates the interests of the ego to the conservation of the community, is really the first premise of every truly human culture.
-- Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, Chapter 11, Ralph Manheim translation

Jim, Raton NM

Another good definition of freedom:

Freedom is the ability to act without the initiation of force (or its threat) being used against you. You have a right to freedom because your life is your property, yours to live as you see fit (as long as you do not violate the right to life and liberty of another). If you are free, you have the unfettered ability to pursue your own happiness, to make those choices needed for the sustenance of your own life. In a semi-free society, such as we have today, your options are forcibly limited by statist politicians on the implicit claim that your life is not your own. But take special note of this important fact: your ability, in a free society, to make unfettered choices is the consequence of being unfettered, i.e., of being unconstrained by the initiation of force. "Having choices" is not the definition of freedom, it is simply one of the consequences of being free.
Fulton Huxtable, 1998

Jim, Raton NM

I expect Bruce would take issue with this observation:

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."
-- Ayn Rand (The Nature of Government)

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