A Liberation's Platform; J. Ingebretsen

Special privilege cannot be granted, however, except by a government that is out-of-bounds. Government, limited to the defense of the life and livelihood of all citizens equally, has no special privilege within its power to grant. [S9S] A government cannot grant anything to anyone which it does not take from someone else. The libertarian candidate, regardless of how great his competence may be, reasons thusly: "You as a person are better able to control your life than I am. Your life is your personal affair,· for better or for worse, except as in the living of your life you may impair or endanger the life and livelihood of others. No person nor set of persons on this earth has any logical right to interfere with you except as you may do injury to them." No per~on, without an element of authoritarianism, can argue otherwise. Libertarians-nonauthoritarians-recog nize that they have no logical rights, with respect to other people, beyond the defense of themselves. Nor do they grant to an agency-government in any of its forms-any rights which they themselves do not possess. A libertarian's government has nothing to dispense. except equal protec tion against, or equal penalizing of fraud, misrepresenta~ tion, predatory practices, and violence.

The variations among men-in their intelligence, their talents, their inheritances-are the handiwork of God; and the Libertarian accepts this fact. He refuses to play the role of god~man and to attempt a coercive readjustment of that which God has provided. He stands on the single plat form of no special privilege for anyone, insofar as his dis pensing of it is concerned. The Libertarian goes on the political stage more to pre sent his views than to seek office.For special privilege will prevail unless its error is understood at least by those whom others follow. Votes, the concern of those who cast them, [396 ] are not to be sought at the expense of integrity nor by con cessions to authoritarianism. The Libertarian has faith in free men. He is conscious of their natural inclination to cooperate for their own benefit and he knows that only in the release of their energy is good accomplished. He, therefore, does not want power.

He wants only freedom from power, the mark of civiliza tion. And he reasons that he cannot correct uncivilized man by becoming uncivilized himself. [397 ] MY FREEDOM DEPENDS ON YOURS b'J ;Dean RUjjett My grandfather fought for freedom while he continued to own slaves. His concept of freedom permitted him to direct and control the activities of other men. And when he waS denied the legal right to take for his own use the fruits of other people's labor, he was honestly convinced that his freedom had been curtailed to some extent. An absurd concept of freedom? Well, he was no different in this respect from JeHerson, Washington, Patrick Henry, and others of our Founding Fathers. It is true that they had developed a better understanding of freedom than had any political group before them, and I respect them highly for their revolutionary and magnificent concepts of inalienable rights which come from God instead of government. But even so, they still believed that liberty permits some men . to use violence to control the actions and to own the pro duction of other men. Our Forefathers believed, of course, that these controls over other men should be permitted only if they were sanctioned by a government based on the democratic or republican processes. But while rejecting the concept of hereditary rulers, they did not entirely re ject the "Old World" idea that it is permissible for some [398 ] persons to use the powers of government to aid them in controlling the actions and disposing of the production of other persons.