Being Precise About The Meaning of Liberty

By Chris Rossini

We live in an age where many individuals are becoming increasingly hostile to truth, facts and reality. The meaning of words are often twisted and language is routinely corrupted.

Many believe that by taking thought, they can add one cubit to their stature. If they think it --- and it feels good to think it --- then regardless of the truth, it becomes their law.

This road has always been, and always will be, a road that individuals can take. A person can, if he so desires, live in an Orwellian world of his own making, where war is peace, and slavery is freedom.

It's always an option, but just because an option exists, doesn't mean it's a wise move to chose it. The option is always there for you to run into a brick wall -- that doesn't mean you should do it.

In an age of corrupted language, it's extremely important to have a firm definition of what the idea of Liberty actually means. That way when someone comes along and tries to pass Liberty off as something else, you'll know that you're dealing with a fraud.

Definitions matter because ideas matter.

Ideas are the inner seeds that produce our outer circumstances. 

If you've ever tended to a garden, you know that you don't toss generic seeds into the soil. The soil doesn't produce anything generic.

Rather, you plant specific seeds -- i.e., watermelon, cucumber, lilac, rose -- and the soil will produce the specific thing that you plant.

You will not get a cucumber from a watermelon seed, and planting flowers will not give you weeds. You choose what specific seed to plant, and the soil will bloom something specific for you.

The world of ideas and circumstances work on the same principles. George Washington wrote to James Madison: "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth." 

The idea of Liberty is a seed, and in order for it to "take root," the very first thing is for it to be understood to mean something specific. 

So what specifically does Liberty mean?

Well, Liberty is another way of saying the word Peace.....or "Live and Let Live."

Your life is yours, (and only yours) and your neighbor's life is your neighbor's, (and only your neighbor's). 

Your property is yours (and only yours) and your neighbor's property is your neighbor's, (and only your neighbor's). 

Since you and your neighbor are sovereign individuals over your own respective lives and property, the only peaceful way for two sovereigns to interact with one another is through the principles of Liberty -- Live and Let Live.

If the sovereign individuals interact with one another, it is on the playing field of voluntarism and non-aggression. 

They can exchange, contract, and trade with one another, but cannot aggress, steal, coerce or use force against each other.

The moment that aggressive force is introduced and accepted, Liberty has been compromised. Peace has been tainted, and sovereignty over one's life and property has been violated.

There's only one way to go from there --- Down.

Once Liberty is routinely violated, civilization goes from a piece-meal slide into a precipitous decline -- out of civilization and into barbarism.

It's all choices. We're free thinking individuals. Not robots.

If civilization is flourishing, bad ideas can bring it down. But the opposite is true as well: If civilization is falling apart, good ideas can bring a magnificent renaissance.

We can choose the Orwellian life, or the Libertarian life.

Each individual makes his or her choice, and the consequences will follow.

​If you're going to choose Liberty...be specific, and have faith that the soil will never let you down.