Giving up the idea that freedom must be “balanced” with a certain measure of authority is very difficult, even for those who do harbor a spirit of freedom such as we discussed previously.  Even if we had a society the majority of which believed in the moral superiority of service and self-sacrifice, we still have to deal with reality, they will say.  Some people will still take an anarchic view of liberty, will still try to take and do at the expense of their neighbors.

“Obviously,” they will say, “we still have to have some laws.  Like, against murder, for instance.  Nobody would disagree with that.”  (They’ll almost always append a rhetorical device of this kind, a claim that no discussion is actually necessary because “no one could possibly disagree,” or, “no reasonable person could possibly disagree.”  People who add this little tag to their assertions are indicating to you that they aren’t actually all that confident in their positions, and would prefer not actually to have to converse about it and defend it against a critical analysis, and are begging you not to challenge them.)  The premise here is that freedom is all well and good, a desirable luxury, but you still need law and authority to solve problems, both the problems inherent to any society and the additional problems that arise in a free society.  All our talk previously about a moral people, a people whose character gives rise to a spirit of freedom, is moot, because such a people does not exist, and real people, in the real world, given freedom, will abuse it.  Authority is the only answer to that reality.

No, it’s not.  It’s not the only answer.  It’s the easy answer.  It’s the answer that jumps most readily to the naturally violent mind of the human ape, that fallen, tribal monster.  It’s the only answer most people ever think of, and the only answer most people ever try.  But there is another answer: Freedom.  Freedom itself solves most of the problems of society, if not all of them.  The few that freedom itself does not obviate, a just law dedicated to freedom will handle fully.

Examples are legion, for those who care to look for them.  Where regulations and licensing on business do not exist, business flourish, and with businesses, trade organizations that establish standards and certifications.  Where weapons and self-defense are not prohibited, people defend themselves, and crime decreases.  Where speed limits are not imposed, people drive more aggressively—and therefore more attentively, reducing the number of traffic accidents.  Where governments do not mandate a single response to an emerging situation such as an epidemic, people seek their own answers and knowledge, they experiment, and quickly the best responses are learned and proliferate.  When government emergency management agencies take unilateral control of a crisis, inefficiencies and corruption and waste dominate, whereas when the people feel free to respond on their own, they show up by the thousands, with boats, with trucks, with aircraft.

Is this a world without law?  Far from it.  Law and government still have their place here.  But what the law looks like in a free society is the subject of our next conversation.