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  IN PURSUIT OF LIBERTY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM
                        By Jarret Wollstein

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We are living in an exciting and pivotal period in human history.
Totalitarian socialism is crumbling and libertarian ideals are advancing
throughout the world. With little more than their bare hands and raw
courage, ordinary people on every continent are defeating the tanks and
secret police of tyrants. We are eyewitnesses to the realization of
Victor Hugo's famous maxim, ``An invasion of armies can be resisted, but
not an idea whose time has come.''

From Nazi Germany to Cambodia's Killing Fields, the 20th Century has
witnessed hideous despotisms. But the long night of tyranny is finally
ending. The lies, terrors, and tortures of dictators have failed to
vanquish the human spirit. Humanity is uniting in pursuit of liberty --
an idea whose time has come.

THE VALUE OF LIBERTY
Without liberty, no other human values are possible. We need liberty to
think, to plan, to create, and to fulfill our individual and unique
potential. Liberty is as much a requirement of our psychological nature,
as food and air are requirements of our biological nature. When liberty
is denied, economies stagnate, culture deteriorates, science declines,
living standards fall, and the human spirit languishes.

The American Declaration of Independence expresses the value of liberty
well:

We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . . .

Liberty is such a powerful and important value that even brutal
dictatorships invoke it. Tyrants often justify their denial of basic
liberties by claiming they are promoting ``higher'' freedoms, such as
security, equality and the common good. However, the bitter fruits of
tyranny are always poverty, ignorance, and brutality.

Tyranny always fails because it is coercive, and human beings are
neither productive nor happy if they are coerced. Coercion is
fundamentally incompatible with human nature.

LIBERTY VS COERCION
Liberty is the ability to control your own mind, body and life, without
interference by others. Liberty is the only social condition that is
consistent with human nature, and thus the only moral and practical way
for people to live.

Each of us is an individual, with unique needs and desires. Happiness
and success are only possible when we are free to pursue our dreams.

We are also social animals. We need other people to achieve most of our
goals: companionship, friendship, family, recreation, security, and
prosperity.

There are only two ways of getting what you want from others:
voluntarily or coercively. In voluntary association, others help you
because they want to. The tools of voluntarism are friendship, trade,
compassion and love. In coercive association, you get what you want from
others by deception or fear. The tools of coercion are intimidation,
threats, fraud, and physical violence.

Voluntary association promotes trust and respect, and allows people to
deal beneficially with each other without surrender of their values.
Coercive association creates fear and distrust, and victimizes some at
the expense of others.

Individual rights is the recognition by society that to be happy and
prosper, people must be free to live their own lives, without coercing
others. Force should be used only in self-defense.

Individual rights include the right to acquire, control, use, and
dispose of property. Without the right to property, no other rights are
possible. Without the right to own printing presses and cameras, there
is no freedom of the press. Without the right to own bibles and build
churches, there is no freedom of religion. Without the right to earn a
living and own a house, there is no security and no right to life.

Coercion is the main impediment to prosperity, security and happiness.
People commonly reject and denounce coercion committed by individuals.
Thieves, swindlers, murderers and thugs are generally scorned.
Unfortunately there is a form of group coercion which is not always
recognized as bad: coercive government.

COERCIVE GOVERNMENT
A government is simply an association of men and women, authorized to
use force. Governments should be evaluated like other groups. If
governments are created by the consent of their members, are
non-coercive, and protect rights, they can be beneficial. But if
governments are imposed without the consent of the governed and violate
rights, they are destructive and harmful.

The first reason governments are formed is to protect their members from
domestic and foreign violence. A good government prohibits violence,
protects individual liberty, and enacts rules which are compatible with
human nature. A bad government disregards individual rights, uses
violence against peaceful citizens, and creates legal requirements which
are destructive of lives and property. A coercive government is a
government at war with its own people.

One overall index of governmental control of people's lives is taxation.
If the government takes 50% of your income in taxes, you are working
half of the time for the state. Taxes range from 25% of the average
person's income in Switzerland, to nearly 50% in the United States, to
over 75% in Scandinavia. Of course taxes pay for many socially useful
goods and services, such as national defense, police, roads, and
education. Unfortunately, financing even socially useful services
through taxation is inefficient and wasteful -- and there is a
practical alternative.

When a social service is tax-supported, the link between producers and
customers is broken, and consumer choice is destroyed. Imposing
bureaucracy between citizens and producers makes producers answerable to
government rather than citizens. If you don't use a service offered in
the market, you don't have to pay for it. But if you don't use a
tax-supported service, you are forced to pay for it anyway.

Financing social services through taxation destroys accountability. The
cost of government services are frequently hidden in complex budgets.
Overhead often consumes most funds. Seventy-five percent of all
expenditures on federal ``programs for the poor'' in the U.S. go for
overhead. Private charities that consume 75% in overhead are routinely
prosecuted for fraud.

Government services often face no real competition. So it is difficult
to determine when expenditures are unreasonable and wasteful. What is a
reasonable price to pay for a police station or an aircraft carrier? No
one knows.

Economic inefficiency also results from financing social services by
taxes. When a free market business fails, it is replaced by a more
efficient competitor. But when government schools or courts fail, the
usual response is to give them more money.

Government coercion is also a threat to individual liberty. Increasingly
Western governments are censoring books, films, and even art and music.
Citizens are required to pay for government schools, even if they teach
values that conflict with those of parents. And crusades are being
mounted against casual drug users, political non-conformists, and other
unpopular groups.

At best, most Western nations are half-free.

THE FREE SOCIETY
It is possible to have societies that are 90% or 100% free -- rather
than merely half-free. There are three crucial requirements for a free
society:

1) respect for individual rights and civil liberties.

2) individual ownership and respect for private property rights, and

3) voluntary association.

Respect for Individual Rights and Civil Liberties. Every free society
requires a strong social ethic of individual liberty. This ethic must be
followed by government, and should be codified in common law and a bill
of rights. In a free society, the individual, not the state, decides
whether to practice a religion, which school to attend, what medical
insurance to buy, what drugs to ingest (for medication or recreation),
whether to own a firearm, and how to make love.

Respect for Private Property. In a free society, an individual is free
to keep and spend his own income. Social services such as courts, roads,
and education, can and should be diverse, competitive, and financed
through user fees and charity.

Voluntary Association. Democracy is far superior to tyranny. It gives
you political choice, and change is possible (though very difficult,
when government gets big). But democracy is not liberty. Democracy means
that some government officials are selected by voters. Popular election
does not guarantee that elected officials (much less the far more
numerous un-elected bureaucrats), will protect liberty. Democracy
unrestrained by individual rights, becomes mob rule.

Switzerland's canton system shows the way toward a freer society. In
Switzerland there are 22 primary political divisions called ``cantons.
The average canton is much smaller than an American state (Switzerland's
population is less than seven million) and cantons have greater
political independence from the national government. The Swiss federal
government guarantees fundamental individual rights, including property
rights, and handles national defense. By delegating most power to
cantons, diverse groups pr eserve their cultures, and individual liberty
is increased.

A system similar to Switzerland's -- with each canton voluntarily
created, and with fee-supported public services -- is one practical
model for a free and non-coercive society.

BEYOND COERCION
In 1930 socialism was the ``wave of the future.'' Sixty years of wars,
concentration camps, and poverty have demonstrated that socialism is not
the wave of the future, but a stagnant swamp.

Coercive government of every type -- socialism, fascism, and the welfare
state -- has failed. Coercion is incompatible with human nature and
human achievement.

The long dark age of coercive government is finally ending. Soon it will
be only an ugly memory. The bright dawn of the new age of human liberty
is just over the horizon. Even now its glow is beginning to light the
world.


                      RECOMMENDED READING

The Machinery of Freedom (David Friedman) ................... $14.95
The Power In The People (Felix Morley) ......................  $4.00
Freedom In Our Time (Vince Miller - Ed)  ....................  $2.95
Our Enemy The State (Albert J. Nock) ........................  $9.95
Liberty Primer (Alan Burris)  ...............................  $7.95
Facets of Liberty (Larry Samuels) ...........................  $7.95


For these and other books and tapes write: Freedom's Forum Books, 1800
Market Street, San Francisco, California 94102. Add $2.50 P & H for 1st
book and $1.00 for each additional item.

Attractive 2-color hard copies of this pamphlet are available for 5
cents each (minimum order $1.00). Price includes shipping.

This pamphlet is produced as a public service by the International
Society for Individual Liberty. If you would like to receive free
literature about ISIL's activities around the world, and receive a
sample copy of the FREEDOM NETWORK NEWS newsletter and book catalog,
please write:


           INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
           1800 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
             Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]