Liberty Defined, Part 1

 This book is broken into 50 topics, each of which the great Dr. Ron Paul posits is a threat to our liberty. 

1. Abortion. He tells of how his view on abortion changed when he had to assist in an abortion. The baby initially survived and lay crying while everyone in the room pretended not to hear it. Then the crying stopped. Shortly after he assisted with a birth of a baby just a few weeks older than the first. This baby, being early, required extra care, which everyone was eager to give. Dr. Paul couldn't find any reason why the difference in care could be viewed as moral. So how to reconcile this with the generally "pro-choice" ethos of libertarianism? Dr. Paul thinks that in modern society, abortion beyond a certain point isn't really necessary; a morning after pill solution would be hard to police anyway and then would be just an individual moral choice. He does, however, advocate for decentralization, even though some states or localities would make abortion laws that he disagrees with morally, decentralization is better than forced moralism. This book was written in 2011 or 2012, so he didn't know that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, but he would have rooted for it to be a states level decision over a federal one. 

2. Assassination. Our government has free reign to assassinate not only international threats or people who stand in the way of desired regime changes abroad, they also claim the right to assassinate even American citizens. They suspend rights of habeas corpus and engage in torture, and all the justification that they need is that someone is a "threat". The problem is that anyone can be deemed a threat with no justification or evidence really required. Again, written back in 2012, but remember the parents getting mad at a school board meeting being labeled terrorists by the FBI? Not great for liberty. 

3. Austrian Economics. The Federal Reserve controls all our money and they steal the value of your money whenever they feel like printing some more for themselves and their cronies. I won't write a lot here, seeing as it is covered a lot in two of the books I have summarized on my blog in the past year. 

4. Bipartisanship. "Moderates like to see themselves as saviors, rescuing us all from the effects of philosophical differences." But those differences are essential, for it is in battling it out in fierce debate that we whittle away at flimsy arguments and half truths. Or you could go with the new Forward Party (insert eye roll) where there are no principle at all, only "centrism" as though the middle of the two extremes is automatically good and true. When the north and the south were fighting over keeping or abolishing slavery, there was no virtue in the position of compromising and only have a little slavery. If the two parties can agree, it usually means it just benefits them. 

5. Business Cycles. MMT and Keynesian economics are massive failures. They think if they can print just the right amount of money or keep the interest rates at just the right level, then everything will be fine. But the economy is a complex and dynamic system that requires the price signals inherent in a truly free market system. (See also, F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom). 

6. Campaign Finance Reform. Yes, the spending on campaigns is insane, but we can't put limits on it. People should be free to spend their money as they wish. (Yes, even if it increases their dreaded carbon footprint. Even if they give it to politicians you don't like.) Limits would likely just drive these exchanges of money further under the table. The real solution is to cut back on the power of politicians and the government, then there would be much less incentive to buy them. 

7. Capital Punishment. Ironically, those who are most fervently pro life are also commonly in favor of capital punishment, and vice versa. Obviously an innocent child is different than a convicted murder, but it's still taking a life. The government is often wrong, and many have been convicted and even executed falsely. Life in prison costs taxpayers less than the endless appeals process of a capital punishment sentence while leaving open the possibility of exoneration. Most people wouldn't want to witness these killings, which suggests that there is something uncivilized about it. 

8. Central Intelligence. It's too big and lacks any checks and balances on its power. At the time of writing it cost taxpayers $80 billion a year, in addition to the money they get from selling drugs. Yes, they are responsible for a lot of crazy things in the drug war. But it's "top secret" so we can't audit them so there is no accountability. Not to mention all the other shady things they have done against our own citizens, like the whole MK Ultra project. 

9. Civil Disobedience. Most of the topics are threats to our liberty, this addresses how to fight for our liberty. He gives MLK and Mohammad Ali as great examples. It needs to be non violent and you need to be prepared for the consequences. 

10. Conscription. Is a form of slavery that enables war. Libertarians believe in bodily autonomy. It's inherently discriminatory and can be manipulated by those with money and power so it can never be fair. 

11. Demagogues. Keep emotion out of it. Opposition to one thing does not equal support of the opposite. He gives examples of how this manipulation has been used prior to writing but recently, just because I'm against sacrificing civil liberties to fight Covid doesn't make me pro death, and being against US involvement in the Ukraine war doesn't make me pro Putin. 

12. Democracy. We've been trained to see democracy as sacrosanct, but it's really not a great system. That's why our founding fathers, in their wisdom and inspiration from God, didn't give us one. They gave us a constitutional and representational republic. As Ben Franklin said, democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding on what to have for lunch. In a more crass and modern phrasing that I've seen around Twitter, gang rape is a form of democracy. The majority cannot overrule the rights of the minority. Dr. Paul goes through how ridiculous it is for us to get into ward to "defend democracy". In recent examples, I think the people who are so quick to call people and things " a threat to democracy" are utterly ridiculous. Sam Harris's recent viral remarks are a perfect example. He was saying it was good that the media, Big Tech etc. "conspired in the open" to get Trump out of office. The interviewer asked "Are you content with the left wing conspiracy to prevent someone from being democratically elected." Sam Harris hemmed and hawed. They don't actually care about democracy, If someone they don't like being democratically elected is a threat to democracy, then democracy is just short hand for the liberal world order and the American Empire. 

13. Discrimination. The dictionary definition shows discrimination to be a good thing. Someone is said to have "discriminating taste." It reminded me of Moroni telling us to "judge righteous judgement." Now obviously discrimination in the more modern usage meaning against groups of people, that kind is bad. But laws meant to fight this bad thing tend to backfire. They lead to affirmative action and the subtle racism of low expectations. They violate the freedom of association. And really, if someone hated you for whatever stupid reason, why would you want to force them to be around you? They'd likely resent you more and why would you want to associate with such a jerk? The real solution is to learn to see individuals instead of groups. In this way it is a return to America's radical individualism and away from modern identity politics and "greater good" mentality that will fix the ills of discrimination. 

14. Education. This is one that is getting a lot of attention today. Right wing is trying to get porn out of schools while left wing cries book banning. Right wing crying CRT and racism while the left cries tolerance and acceptance. The solution is to get the government out of school altogether. There is clearly no authority granted to the government by the constitution to be in charge of education (and remember that any authority not explicitly given in the constitution was explicitly meant to be left to the states). Senator Thomas Massie is working on a bill to end the federal Department of Education. Many are working for school choice (although that will bring its own pitfalls until the government butts out entirely.) Some subjects like math are objective (or they are until you inject social justice, which is happening all over right now) but some subjects are inherently bias so parents should have more control in the type of education their children receive. Obviously home school is best, and there is a Ron Paul homeschool curriculum. 

15. Empire. We like to think of America as a land of the free, a republic or a "democracy". But we've become an empire. We've become the biggest empire in the history of the world, with bases and troops all over the world. We fight ridiculous wars to protect our interests. The elites use fear campaigns to get us to support these wars. Dr. Paul notes that American citizens were more likely to die of lightning than terrorism, but how many did we kill in the name of the war on terrorism? 

16. Envy. People hate the justly rich and gripe about wealth inequality because of envy. Envy is unbecoming and unproductive. Robbing from or punishing the justly rich is institutionalized immorality. 

17. Evolution vs. Creationism. IDK was this really an issue in 2012? I guess so. I don't see it being an issue now. And to the extent that it is an issue, it would be fixed by fixing government's monopoly on education as discussed above. 

18. Executive power. We've been in reckless and ridiculous wars that congress didn't really authorize. Presidents have used the interstate commerce clause and the welfare clause to take control of everything and congress and the judiciary have failed to rule them in . Anyone paying attention can see how the past few presidents have ruled largely by decree. How many executive orders did Biden issue in his first week? Somewhere close to 50 if memory serves. Checks and balances need to be restored. (See also states that have been in a "state of emergency" for two years now, giving their executive branch unchecked power.)

19. Foreign Aid. This money is political at both ends. Our "representatives" get kick backs or special favors and there are always strings attached. It's political on the other end and the money mostly benefits the elites and bankers. The strings attached often get tangled and we end up creating enemies (see the Taliban). It's taking money from the poor of our nation and giving it to the wealthy in a poorer nation. The federal reserve is allowed to make secret deals so we can't audit them and know exactly where our money is going. Ukraine has been a good example of this, with Ukrainian elites buying Swiss chalets while we dump money on their war torn country. 

20. Four Freedoms. This is a reference to a speech by FDR where he listed four freedoms. The first were freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Ok, so far so good, we're all agreed. Then he advocated for government giving us freedom from want. Uh, no. We can't all just sit on our lazy bums and have the government give us anything we want. The government doesn't produce anything, so anything it gives you is taken from someone else. You have no right to any of that. And freedom from fear? Well, not really. I guess one of the few proper roles of government is to protect us from foreign invaders, etc. But the government all too often are the ones that propagate fear to control people (cough, covid, cough) and trick us into supporting wars. They tell us these wars are to "protect our freedoms". But James Madison knew better. "War is the most dreaded enemy of liberty." Modern leaders would have you believe that war is peace. 

21. Global warming. 40-50 years ago it was an impending ice age. Then it became global warming. Now it's known as climate change, "covering all empiric contingencies." Another way government uses fear to get power. See the green new deal aka "inflation reduction act". Even if it's totally real and a big threat, the government is the worst entity to handle it. Their subsidies discourage competition and innovation. And this green movement is often, ridiculously, anti nuclear. One nuclear reactor generates as much power as a wind farm the size of Connecticut. Free market options will allow for faster progress, better innovation, cheaper energy, and more human flourishing. 

22. Gun Control. Libertarians are big on 2A, insisting it was written so we could stand up to a tyrannical government, not for hunting. An armed society is a polite society.  Criminals won't obey gun laws leaving law abiding citizens underprotected. Historically, disarming the populace precedes genocide. 

23. Hate crimes. Are ridiculous. First you have to play mind game and guess that some sort of discrimination played a part in the motive. Then you have to assert that hatred of a specific group is a crime on top of the actual harm done-policing thoughts and feelings. Then, you imply that hurting a member of one group is inherently worse that hurting a member of a different group. It's subjective and superfluous. Crimes are crimes and the motive shouldn't affect the seriousness of the crime, only the harm caused should. (Same with "hate speech", but I guess that wasn't as much of a thing at the time of writing.)

24. Immigration. It was interesting to hear this topic from Ron Paul, as I had just recently heard Dave Smith talk about it on a podcast and thought he made some good points. Dave calls himself a Ron Paul libertarian, which after this segment (well, lots of things in this book, really,) I judge to be accurate. In an ideal libertarian society, borders would be sort of vague and unimportant so immigration wouldn't be an issue. This is because everything would be privatized. If someone trespassed on your private property, you could forcefully remove them, and if they refused, you could shoot them. In an ideal libertarian society, you wouldn't have money taken from you to pay for the schooling and healthcare of people who haven't paid into that system. We do not live in an ideal libertarian society, so free immigration doesn't work. They don't enforce trespassing laws at the border and socialized systems (school and healthcare) are overburdened by illegal immigrants. End the welfare state and enforce property rights, and immigration won't be a problem. Hilariously, some in the northeast are having to face some of these burdens after virtue signaling that they are sanctuary cities, because Governor Abbott sent just a couple busses of illegal immigrants to them. Dr. Paul proposes enforcing the laws currently on the books re immigration and working to reduce the welfare state so that more immigrants can fairly come. 

25. Insurance. Only works when correct price signals of a free market allow for proper risk assessment. So central planning insurance (getting the government involved) fails for the same reason all socialism fails. HL Mencken, "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule." CS Lewis, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”