Our answer to “What Is Liberty?” Is Wrong. It’s Not the Right to Do What You Want, It’s the Right to Do What You Ought
A major issue in American politics is the concept of liberty. We bicker over which party- Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian- is truly the party that supports liberty, whether certain policies would enhance or detract from individual liberty, and why America has gradually become a less free country. All of those arguments are good ones to have and are about important topics, but they often lack the proper grounding, which is a correct answer to the “what is liberty?” question.
That question, “what is liberty?,” needs to be answered and understood by society before our other arguments can proceed. In fact, I think our inability to properly answer it is what is behind most of our arguments and misunderstandings. Were we as a society to develop a proper answer to it, I think we might be able to have more substantive policy debates and settle issues in a more complete way, rather than just continue to bicker and temporarily change direction with executive orders.
So, what’s my answer to the “what is liberty?” question? Liberty is, as Michael Knowles frequently says in his podcast, the right to do what you ought, the discipline to do good even when doing so is difficult. It is not the right to do whatever you want and chase after a hedonistic lifestyle.
That difference is what differentiates liberty from libertinism. Libertinism is the idea that traditional sexual, religious, or moral norms don’t matter and that it is okay to live a lifestyle unbound by traditional morality. That is what was behind the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s, is behind the push for gay marriage today, is responsible for the massive increase in out of wedlock births that Charles Murray describes in Coming Apart, is behind the push for drug legalization, and is generally responsible for American society degenerating into one that is amoral and focused on pleasure and immediate gratification rather than responsible living.
Unfortunately, both the Democrats and Libertarians would answer the “what is liberty?” question with an answer that describes libertinism rather than true liberty. They are far too focused on permitting individuals to follow whatever twisted pleasures and sickening depravities they might like rather than on good outcomes for both individuals and society.
Conservatives, traditional ones, at least, understand that libertinism is not liberty. That’s why they typically stand against drug legalization, have pushed back against a host of changes to social and public policy such as legalizing abortion or gay marriage, have fought against increases to the welfare state, and generally focus on families and productivity in the way described by Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism rather than letting individuals chase after whatever irresponsible lifestyle choices or depraved proclivities they might think they prefer.
The fact is, as Hayek once said, responsibility is the necessary other side of liberty. A society or individual cannot truly be free if passions are the central focus rather than responsibility because being a slave to one’s passions is no better than being a slave to the state.
Take, for example, developments from our current lives. Are single mothers better off because they chased sexual pleasure rather than behaving responsibly? No. Nor are they free. Are drug addicts better off or freer because they’re addicted to heroin, constantly stoned, or always chasing after their next pain pill? No. They’re slaves to their passions. What about those who live lifestyles of sloth, are they free or better off? No. Welfare recipients and those that don’t work are often unhappy and unhealthy wards of the state. Finally, what about the obese, has their gluttonous nature made them free or happy? No. Like the drug addicts, they’re slaves to their passions and suffer accordingly.
And that’s where conservatives differ from libertarians and liberals. To a libertarian or progressive, it might not be a good thing that someone is addicted to heroin, obese, or a single parent, but it is a good thing that they have the “freedom” to do so; their shallow conception of the answer to “what is liberty?” shows their lack of understanding about why liberty is the right to do what you ought rather than what you want.
The Founding Fathers understood that. They set Americans free by establishing a constitutional republic, yet knew it would only last so long as Americans remained a morally upright people that focused on doing what they ought rather than what a desire for base pleasure pushed them toward.
Their recognition of the true nature of liberty is evident in quotations from the time. When someone asked what type of government the convention had established, Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Similarly, Adams remarked that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The Founding Fathers had the proper answer to “what is liberty?” They knew it was the right to do what you ought rather than the ability to do what your sinful instincts might tell you to do.
Conservatives must relearn that narrative and start pushing for it. A lifestyle of liberty is not one that prioritizes pre-marital sex, drug use, sloth, gluttony, and a general shunning of religious or social mores. That is a libertine lifestyle. A lifestyle of liberty is instead one that you would expect of a person with traditional values. Wait until marriage to have kids. Don’t use drugs or overeat. Exercise frequently. Save your money and invest it responsibly. Act with dignity and respect others. Have good manners. Read widely and constantly learn. Doing so will help you live a better life and will also show you know the answer to “what is liberty?”
Not only is that a recipe for a healthier, happier life, it is also the basic recipe for success in America. As Ben Shapiro said, all success takes is making a few simple life choices. You might not become fabulously wealthy, but you will be able to live a happy life and support a family.
And that happiness is from what true freedom stems. It liberates you from your passions and from chance. We don’t need to be saints; no one can live a life free of sin. But we do need to have values to live fulfilling lives (the “happiness” portion of the Declaration of Independence comes from the Ancient Greek concept of happiness coming from fulfillment). By saving, you’re relatively free from worrying about unemployment or an economic downturn. By waiting until marriage, you’re free from worry about out-of-wedlock births. By avoiding drug use, you’re free from being a slave to the next high.
That is, therefore, why liberty is the right to do what you ought. In societies without liberty, such as the Soviet Union or Mao’s China, people were not free to live as they thought they should. Their work was determined by the state, their ability to feed their families depended on ideological conformity rather than hard work, and traditional morals were thrown out by totalitarian, revolutionary officials. The result was that the lives of most people in those societies lacked fulfillment and they were deeply unhappy, as shown by the suicide epidemic in Soviet bloc nations like East Germany.
The US, however, did empower people to live the lives they ought to live (before America’s cultural revolution in the 60s, at least). Family life was prized and cherished, individual achievement was cheered, and society enforced semi-rigid moral beliefs that turned people toward morally upright lifestyles and away from chasing hedonistic living.
That is the sort of lifestyle conservatives should champion because it is the answer to “what is liberty?” It is the right to live the life you know you ought to live in the same manner that our forefathers did.
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Once you go down the slippery slope of deciding what someone “OUGHT” to do rather than what someone should be FREE to do, you set yourself or the government up as the decider of right and wrong, and implicitly say to everyone – “WE OWN YOU.”
I will not argue in favor of drug addiction, sexual promiscuity, gambling addictions, or any other personal vice. But I will NEVER stop arguing in favor of FREEDOM and SELF OWNERSHIP. Conservatives rail against personal freedom because they don’t like knowing that others are having a better time then they are. They most certainly have every right to rail against THEIR money being STOLEN by the government to support the poor choices of others. But instead of working to END the welfare state, restore restitution to crimes against persons or property, and demanding personal accountability and responsibility, they simply vote for more laws against personal freedom, and more jails (paid for through the theft of taxpayer dollars), to try and address the issue.
Morality can be taught, but it must also be exercised and learned from. How many reading this would have had their lives ruined had some of their “impulsive” choices earlier in life resulted in long jail terms? Who, other than YOU, was actually hurt by your choices? We once threw people in jail for possession and consumption of alcohol. We once stoned people to death for adultery. We still throw people in cages for possession of the flower of a specific plant, while selling the leaves of another in a perfectly legal manner. Some oppose the easy availability of things like vitamins and supplements. Some think that homeopathic medicines are a fraud (the Queen of England NEVER travels anywhere without her chest of homeopathic remedies by the way). Where do we draw the line?
It is quite simple where to draw the line – FREEDOM, SELF-OWNERSHIP, and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Anything less is government ownership of the individual – SLAVERY.
Anyone who wishes to live the so-called “moral life” should absolutely do so. The propaganda mechanisms like government schooling (paid for through theft and violence), should be abolished. ALL of the mechanisms by which others are being forced to pay for the poor choices of others MUST be abolished (a restoration of purely voluntary charity). As in the case of illegal immigration, the call is always to build a bigger wall, when the enticement mechanism of free stuff is NEVER taken away or ever heavily promoted. How many poor choices do we see made simply because the person knows that a “social safety net” is in place to pick up their pieces??
How about we promote freedom for a change instead of just another police state with a the face of “moral superiority” on it??
You ignored what the author really wrote.
Also, please tell us what is lacking in the US and all the Western countries nowadays – is it freedom that’s missing?
No, I did not ignore what was written, and I applaud the author’s push to promote the appropriate choices. But one cannot ignore the truth that when the discussion is political, it is inevitable to discuss POLICY, and POLICIES that punish poor choices with direct punitive actions, rather than publicly shame, or hold people responsible through personal responsibility, are the slippery slope to tyranny….and simply reinforce the belief that government/society/others OWN YOU, and not YOU.
When one can be punished for exercising ownership over one’s body or property, there is no freedom. So as a short list of what is lacking:
Medical freedom, private property rights, freedom to raise and educate children as parents see fit, freedom of the speech, freedom of the press, privacy freedom. And more freedom disappears every day.
1.) And if all those listed freedoms are restored [to… see below], then everything will be hunky-dory?
2.) Who/what defines the [freedom] standard we need to get back to?
We lack both freedom and virtue (among many other things). Confusing one for the other won’t restore either.
No it is not.
I draw the line at homeopathy. I’d throw that queen in prison. Some kind of prison for the retarded.
Obviously you have either never tried it or never had any success with it. I have (especially with allergies), and while I do not use it for most things, I appreciate the FREEDOM to still be able to choose it if I desire. Meanwhile prescription drugs kill as many as 100,000 people every year. https://newspunch.com/100000-deaths-per-year-in-the-u-s-caused-by-prescription-drugs/
Heroin and meth, et. al., users may be having a better time than me, but me paying for their social safety net contributes greatly to their good time, and increasingly contributes to my lack of liberty.
Agreed. No argument here. Time for the net to go. How can anyone expect to fully understand morality and the consequences of their actions unless they are allowed and forced to face them?
What a blowhard.
The problem isn’t liberty itself it is what to do with all who used it irresponsibly and become a giant anchor or drain on everyone else’s liberty.
It’s called teach and expect morality not hedonism.
We will lose everything this country was founded for because extreme immorality in the name of “it’s my right” rather than “right over wrong.”
Unfortunately, the komissars of the 1960s cultural revolution have marched through our institutions a la the Frankfurt School and have us by the short hairs
Freedom to do what we ought is a religious concept. Religion teaches that two dudes boning each other is a sin. I agree. I don’t think it should be illegal, though. The court in China that recently declared homosexuality a form of mental illness is probably right.
Liberty really isn’t a “right”.
It’s a modern human concept.
The laws of physics ultimately determine the amount of liberty.
We all have the liberty to walk naked in a snowstorm and jump off a cliff.
The larger and more concentrated the group of people, the less social liberty exists.
Liberty should be as expansive as possible until it runs into someone else or their property. Libertarians have never pretended that it should ever go farther.
Well, the Libertarian party supports open borders which is granting the citizens of one nation the liberty to use the property of another nation’s citizens. It is the abrogation of property rights on an international scale.
They also support the government owning NOTHING, and private property being all there is, and private property rights being supreme. The two do go hand in hand, yet they tend to promote the open borders idea far more than they promote the other, or the idea of ending ALL welfare for anyone that comes here. But sound private property rights would mean that nobody would be able to come here without someone to put them up. That is actually the way things used to work, and worked quite well.
Well written, long overdue , and thought provoking article.
Government is just a convenient whipping boy for people who want to bark about infringements to their “freedoms”. True freedom is within the individual and is the result of their choices. One is free to choose among the various depravities or free to make better choices, but what most folks miss is that their freedom to choose is different from the consequences of their choices. What they think of as “their freedom” is really just service to an alternative master. We are all slaves, but the master we choose makes all the difference.
You wisely avoided the topic of society or government deciding for us what we ought to do. It is an individual decision that everyone makes either voluntarily or by default. Thus we are all slaves to something–a government, a philosophy, a religion, a god, or our own passions. Those serving their own passions are just as much a slave as one held against their will by an outside force. It is just much more convenient to rail at a government than to rail at ourselves for the poor choices our freedom afforded us.
Joshua 24:15 “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living.”
Romans 6:16-18 “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
Peace, and keep writing. Your thinking is keen.
Liberty, as found in the Preamble, 5th & 14th Amendments of the Constitution, includes the Right to Pursue a Livelihood. Ref. Regents v. Roth, 408 US 564. As such, in the same manner as the Right to a Trial by Jury, it is not an acceptable object for taxation. If it could be taxed, the government could, at its pleasure, confiscate 100% and reestablish slavery. Taxation is a matter of Sovereignty, and We the [Sovereign] People have never acquiesced our Right to pursue a Livelihood.
CRACKING THE CODE by Hendrickson details how IRS form #4852, Exempt from Taxation, has been used to demand refunds of taxes erroneously submitted.
[A common mistake by citizens is to sign, under threat of perjury, over the line labeled ‘taxpayer’s name.’ That is submitted to a court as evidence you have acquiesced to the status of a ‘taxpayer’ [an individual who owes a tax. 26 USC #7701 (a) 14.] and judicial process never has to allege you have violated a ‘known legal duty.’]
Sorry, I’ll stick with Locke.
Voluntary community is more important than liberty, and I recognize the two are quite compatible. But we should emphasize the former if we want to survive. Form voluntary, high-trust communities. The US was a voluntary community, a nation. It is now a coercive empire.
Liberty requires discipline… within the individual self. Discipline might in one person be defined as wearing appropriate attire to prevent discovery of the crime he has committed. Gloves, head covering, body suit? The limits of this conversation can be seen in the squalling of the ‘libertarian’, who confuses self discipline with coercion. In our American culture, most answers to these apparently evergreen questions regarding liberty, libertinism, civilization and living in close quarters with large groups of people were answered in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. Self discipline is anathema to barbarians, libertarians, socialists and communists. All require the ‘strongman’ to hold their passions in check. All are primitive expressions of ‘society’, long surpassed by the much more difficult expression of social living embodied in the New Testament of the Christian bible and its philosophical expressions developed subsequently following the fundamental construct.