Tuesday, October 18, 2005

The constant fight against personal liberty

Decades and, in some cases, centuries ago, most Western nations drew themselves constitutions that stated clearly what the State can and cannot do. These fundamental rules were the fruits of hard work of countless thinkers, built upon the foundations of the individual freedom to act and speak in the manner he sees fit, as long as he harms no others freedom to do the same. The foundations of freedom to act, work, speak and own where the boundaries drawn for the State to respect, and never to cross.

These new rules of State-bounding worked like a charm, giving birth to the most prosperous and wealthiest countries in the world, where freedom to act was own was respected, and the natural and productive behaviour of free individuals flourished. Of course the Left never gave completely up, and Statists have always existed despite clear evidence that the State is the sand in the industrial-motor fuelled by human productiveness. Every attack upon the foundations of free constitutions has been made - from the freedom to act to the freedom to own (although, an attack on one is always - in logical understanding - an attack upon the other). The 20th century witnessed most of the disastrous results of such attacks, giving birth to horrors ranging from Hitler's Third Reich to the Swedish welfare-model. Every submission to the Statist's views leads, in one way or another, to human sufferings, less production, less wealth, lower living-standards and fewer opportunities to create valuable property where worthless raw-materials were before. Although the death-toll of each Statist's scheme varies greatly, the long-term effects turn out to be the same: The suffocating breath of Socialism killing off life and free initiatives wherever it's carried.

The modern schemes of Statists to seize control over human society have been adjusted to modern times. The welfare-model has recently seen its decline go into full swing, and desperately socialized countries such as Germany, Sweden and Denmark have begun to see the need to shake of the authoritarian ghost. Schools and hospitals are again being released to the free market, taxes world-wide have begun to sink, the free enterprise along with its twin - the private property right - are breaking down the walls of the toughest Communist states (China, Vietnam). Globalisation and the world-wide free market are freeing millions of individuals from the poverty-claws of Statism. Economic freedom measures higher and higher, year by year. The trend is in the positive direction, and desperate fighters of socialism, anti-globalisation, reduced personal freedom and private ownership and other such remnants of the old-school Left don't shut up, but their time is out.

The constant fight against liberty continues, but so must the battle for liberty. It took blood, sweat and tears to provide the Western world with constitutions of freedom to act, speak and own. It must never be left up for grabs for the Statists to destroy.