Liberty and Responsibility

An individual is a free citizen. An isolated individual, in contact with no other person, has unlimited and unrestricted liberty. Anything and everything is permissible, though not everything is possible and certainly not everything is profitable.

When one free individual comes in contact with another free individual, something has to be worked out between the two so that there is mutual respect for each other's rights to "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness". If the two are to live together in harmony, they must mutually agree to allow their individual liberties to be restricted to some extent.

If a large number of individual are involved, the agreements and compromises may be codified and a system set up whereby the agreements may be administered fairly and justly. For example, a Constitution that establishes a constitutional government.

Since the individual is inherently free, All governmental authority derives from the authority that the individuals give to the government. The government exists and governs by the consent of the governed. Government therefore can never give anything to the people, it can only take from them, and then it can only take what it is allowed to take.

One major problem we have today is that too many people seem to think that government is the implement of an all-powerful entity known as "society" and that everything flows from the government to the individual. Many have been taught that this is the way it works, and many find it convenient to believe because such belief absolves them of any personal responsibility.

This is not the case. A society is made up of individuals, and the action of a society is the sum total of the actions of the individual members. Society can't force the individuals to comply with arbitrary rules and regulations, though society may make it easier for the individual to choose to comply rather than resist. It is still a matter of individual choice: No one ever does anything that they do not choose to do even though they may not be aware of making the choice.

As long as a significant majority of the individuals that make up a society hold the same or similar beliefs, the actions of the society will reflect those beliefs and the society will assume that the rectitude of those beliefs is obvious. However, problems arise when these beliefs are based on false premises. For example, the belief that society as a whole is inherently responsible for the welfare of individuals. Society may assume this responsibility as a result of the belief of its members, but since a society exists only because it has been formed by like-minded individuals, it is the individuals that are inherently responsible for the welfare of the society, not the other way around. The society will flourish only when the individuals that comprise it accept that responsibility.