Throughout history orators and poets have extolled liberty, but no one has told us why liberty is so important. Our attitude towards such matters should depend on whether we consider civilization as fixed or as advancing. . . In an advancing society, any restriction on liberty reduces the number of things tried and so reduces the rate of progress. In such a society freedom of action is granted to the individual, not because it gives him greater satisfaction but because, if allowed to go his own way, he will on the average serve the rest of us better than under any orders we know how to give.
—H. B. Phillips
So the question becomes why is there no example presently or through history of a truly libertarian society?
Posted by: muirgeo | 27 October 2007 at 09:32
Maybe it's something to do with individual liberty not group liberty, perhaps. You know, 'negative' freedoms versus 'positive' freedoms.
;)
Gil
Posted by: Gil | 28 October 2007 at 11:05
I like this quote. Amongst other things, it puts greater value on what is good for society than what the individual wants.
Modern liberalism places the _wants_ of the individual first, even though a well-ordered society must place the _needs_ of society first--yes, even at the expense of individual desires. For instance, no one _wanted_ to get drafted, but it served America's (and, incidentally, the world's) _needs_ to draft men to fight WWII.
Posted by: Adam Smith | 31 October 2007 at 17:54