Hi, I’m Ben. I’m a junior political science and philosophy double major and I love freedom, and figured this blog would be just one more way to express that love, so I’ll be posting on here every so often. I hope you will not only read, but comment. I’d love to take the issues I raise on here further.
So, what do I mean by saying I love freedom? I’m guessing my saying that probably either intrigues you or scares you. Why do I want freedom so bad? I’m probably sick and tired of the stupid government getting all up in my face and violating my rights, right? WRONG.
My call for freedom stems not from a demand for my rights as one who is governed, but from an acknowledgement of the limits of my rights as one who governs.
Or, for another way of looking at it:
I’m not your daddy. God is.

I am not one of those angry libertarians who wants freedom because he’s tired of “big government,” or “the man,” or whoever, pushing him around. I want freedom because I recognize that I don’t have the authority to make anyone do anything except keep his hands off someone else. And if I don’t have that authority and if you don’t either, then getting together with a whole bunch of people and making a majority won’t magically give us that authority. I don’t have the right to be your boss, whether on my own, or with a bunch of people. I can protect others from you, but it’s not my job to tell you how to live. That’s your job. And when I say that’s your job, I mean it. It’s not so much that you have a right to be your own boss, but that you have a responsibility to be your own boss. It’s your JOB. It’s not my place to do it for you, even if I really do know how to do it better, because you are morally accountable for your actions, not me. The only thing I can do to you is make sure you don’t interfere with anyone else’s job. And since that’s the only thing I’m able to do to you, that’s the only thing the government, which is just a bunch of everyday people like me, can do to you. THAT is why I demand freedom.
I’ll leave you this bit from “Equality” by C.S. Lewis:

A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind was so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true… I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation… The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.