Would You Like Door #1, Door #1 Or Door #1?

The essence of freedom is choice – the right to choose how to live your own life.  So long as your choices do not prevent others from exercising any of their own natural rights, your choices should be without bounds and without limits.  In my opinion, this freedom, this right to make our own choices, is fundamental; it trumps all other rights, privileges, rules, laws, etc.  With it, you can always be as free as you wish to be.  Without it, you simply cannot be free.

That sounds good doesn’t it?  But then, what about the fact that so many people (as in ALL of us at one time or another) make poor choices, choices that are not in our best interest, or in the best interests of others?  Let us analyze the nature of choice and its relationship to freedom…

First, imagine that, while I take reasonably good care of my own self interests, I have no regard or respect for my fellow citizens.  I drive in a way that threatens their safety.  I run a business that cheats its clients and/or its employees.  I use deception to encourage others to make decisions that favor me but are not in their own self interest.  And so on.

Not exactly a nice guy am I?  But, sadly, I am by no means atypical.  But, these are choices I am free to make, are they not?  Most emphatically not.

No truly free society, can long remain free when its members are unrestrained from making such choices.

Next, imagine that, while I’m reasonably nice to others, I have no respect for myself.  I manifest this lack of self respect by making very poor personal choices.  So, every single day, my mid-day meal consists of a double bacon cheeseburger and large order of fries (extra salt, of course) that I wash down with a couple of beers.  Then, sufficiently stuffed, I have another beer or two while I enjoy my after-meal cigarettes.   Then I take a long nap while all that crap gets absorbed by my system.  Evenings, it is usually chicken-fried steak or similar fried delicacy — maybe with a baked potato trimmed with bacon bits, cheese, sour cream, butter, and anything else I can find to make it even less healthy.  Then it is time for American Idol on the tube and some serious smoking and drinking.

Not exactly a recipe for long life is it?  And, I’m sure to be a regular customer of the health care system.  But, these are choices I am free to make.  Are they not?

In a truly free society, free from the constant intrusion of government, free from the intimidation of my fellow citizens, then these are, in fact, choices I am free to make.  Certainly not always good choices, in terms of my health and probable lifespan.  Probably not in terms of my ability to fully enjoy whatever lifespan I have.  But, assuming I take full personal responsibility for the outcomes, these are certainly choices I should be free to make – for myself, not for others.

Now, enter government.  What might government do to improve my choices – for my own benefit as well as that of others?

In the spirit of “promoting the general welfare”, government could support a system of education that strives to teach me, and all other citizens, how to think for myself.  How to take in information, analyze it, then use it to help me make rational decisions.  Rational in terms of my own enlightened self interest.  Highly desirable.  I am still free to decide for myself but have been exposed to tools I can use to significantly better my own life, on my own terms, while leaving my fellows free to do the same.  Quite desirable.  And, amazingly, a good use of government power.

If you willingly behave in ways that endanger your fellow citizens and/or deny them the exercise of their own rights, you are, in effect, demanding that government institute new laws and regulations in an attempt to protect those you would harm or defraud.  Anther good use of government power.

But, what happens when we want to be free to make our own choices, yet “rescued” from any bad outcomes they might bring?

Enter the “nanny state”.   Where government that has gone from “promoting the general welfare” to socialism, to attempting to enforce my specific welfare, by limiting my choices through the real or implied use of force, and/or the denial of physical liberty.  How dare they? you might think.  By what right/law/notion could “they” do such a thing?   Perhaps you demanded it??

When you accept government funded health care, you are, in effect, are demanding that government implement rules and regulations in an attempt to keep health care costs from bankrupting us all, mostly by outright prohibitions, or unbearable taxes on all those substances and activities you might use to harm your health.

When you accept those government “bailouts”, “stimuli”, “aids to children”, “food stamps”, “earned income credits” and/or whatever euphemisms we are using for “handouts”, you are, in effect, demanding that government take a larger role in the management of your company and/or of your very life.  After all, the government is “we the people” and “we” have a right to protect our investments, do “we” not?

In a word, when you consistently refuse to conduct your life in a rational fashion, or conduct it in a fashion that makes you a threat or a burden to your fellow citizens, you are demanding that government step in with rules and laws meant to channel your behavior along “acceptable” lines.  Acceptable to government bureaucrats, not necessarily acceptable to you.  But hey, it is all for your own good is it not?

And you are, at least theoretically, still free to choose.  The only drawback is that your range of available choices has been reduced to door #1, door #1 or door #1.  But when you do what you must and choose door #1, you are still choosing are you not?  You might think so.  Looks to me like you are obeying.  Free people make real choices.  Slaves obey.

Want to be free?  Then act free.  Free people make informed choices.  Acting in their own self interest while fully realizing that they must allow their fellow citizens to do the same.  And, most of all, free people take full personal responsibility for the outcomes of the choices they freely make.

At this moment, you are still free to choose between true freedom and slavery – between self determination or socialism.  I suggest that it is high time to start choosing in your own best interest.  Remember a choice is being made.  The question is whether you make it for yourself -or- whether it is made for you… by people who are operating in their own interest, not yours.

Just remember — freedom means you get to choose.  Yet freedom is also one of the choices you get to make.

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