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Imagine you're driving a car through town, and you come to a fork in the road. You turn left, but no one was forcing you to go one way or the other. Next you come to a crossroads. You turn right, but no one was preventing you from going left or straight on. There is no traffic to speak of and there are no diversions or police roadblocks. So you seem, as a driver, to be completely free. But this picture of your situation might change quite dramatically if we consider that the reason you went left and then right is that you're addicted to cigarettes and you're desperate to get to the tobacconists before it closes. Rather than driving, you feel you are being driven, as your urge to smoke leads you uncontrollably to turn the wheel first to the left and then to the right. Moreover, you're perfectly aware that your turning right at the crossroads means you'll probably miss a train that was to take you to an appointment you care about very much. You long to be free of this irrational desire that is not only threatening your longevity but is also stopping you right now from doing what you think you ought to be doing. This story gives us two contrasting ways of thinking of liberty. On the one hand, one can think of liberty as the absence of obstacles external to the agent. You are free if no one is stopping you from doing whatever you might want to do. In the above story you appear, in this sense, to be free. On the other hand, one can think of liberty as the presence of control on the part of the agent. To be free, you must be self-determined, which is to say that you must be able to control your own destiny in your own interests. In the above story you appear, in this sense, to be unfree: you are not in control of your own destiny, as you are failing to control a passion that you yourself would rather be rid of and which is preventing you from realizing what you recognize to be your true interests. One might say that while on the first view liberty is simply about how many doors are open to the agent, on the second view it is more about going through the right doors for the right reasons. In a famous essay first published in 1958, Isaiah Berlin called these two concepts of liberty Negative Liberty and Positive Liberty, respectively (Berlin 1969). The reason for using these labels is that in the first case liberty seems to be a mere absence of something (i.e. of obstacles, barriers, constraints or interference from others), whereas in the second case it seems to require the presence of something (i.e. of control, self-mastery, self-determination or self-realization). Libertarians believe that Berlin's first concept of liberty -- which he dubbed Negative Liberty -- is the genuine concept of liberty. As a result, Libertarians believe that all human beings with informed consent are entitled to equality before the law and fair treatment as individuals responsible for his or her own actions. They oppose racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of bigotry whether perpetrated by private individuals or (especially) by government. Libertarians reject paternalistic ageist discrimination, whether in its ugly traditional forms or in its newer guises as affirmative action quotas and "diversity" rules. Libertarians recognize that there will always be bigotry and hatred in the world, just as there will always be fear and stupidity, but they don't believe public laws can force understanding any more than they can force courage or intelligence. Libertarians maintain that the only fair laws are those that never mention the words "young" or "old"; "black" or "white"; "man" or "woman"; "gay" or "straight". When people use bigotry as an excuse to commit force or fraud, it is the act itself which is the crime, and deserves punishment, not the motive behind it. The difference between libertarians and typical "youth advocates" is that the latter focuses on protecting children, keeping them safe, and ensuring that they are provided with "entitlements" like the "right" to education, even at the expense of the civil liberties that are guaranteed to adults. The former doesn't seek such "protections," but instead wishes to guarantee the protections of individual liberty and personal responsibility for youth, teenagers, and students. While Libertarians are concerned with the well-being of young people, they also believe that depriving individuals of basic human rights -- freedom of speech, suffrage, privacy, and autonomy -- does not serve their best interests.  Historical Youth, Teen, or Student Libertarians * Lillian Harman (author; opponent of age of consent laws) Notable Libertarians With Significant Accomplishments as Youth, Teens, or Students * Dr. David T. Beito (Students for a Libertarian Society) * Dr. Walter Block (author; College Professor) * Nathaniel Branden (author; College Professor) * Roy A. Childs, Jr., 1949-1992 (Associate Editor, The Individualist) * Don Ernsberger (Society for Individual Liberty) * Leslie Fish (musician) * Melinda Pillsbury Foster (author) * Eric Garris (Libertarian Party Radical Caucus) * Walter Grinder (Atlas Economic Research Foundation) * Roy Halliday (Libertarian Alliance) * Lisa Kennedy (former MTV VJ) * Donald Meinshausen (Young Americans for Freedom) * Vince Miller (International Society of Individual Liberty) * Tom G. Palmer (Students for a Libertarian Society; CARD) * Durk Pearson (Life Extension Foundation) * Robert W. Poole, Jr. (author; Reason Foundation) * Justin Raimondo (Libertarian Party Radical Caucus) * Dr. Chris Sciabarra (National Student Board, Students for a Libertarian Society) * Jarrett Wollstein (author; International Society for Individual Liberty) Adult Allies of Youth, Teen, or Student Libertarians * Sarah Fitz-Claridge (founder, Taking Children Seriously) * George Harman (social reformer and activist) * Moses Harman, 1830-1910 (co-editor, Lucifer: The Light Bearer) * Walter Thiessen (Steering Committee, Mountain Laurel Sudbury School) * Edwin C. Walker (co-editor, Lucifer: The Light Bearer) Prominent Youth, Teen, or Student Libertarians * Juliet Annerino (musician) * Marty Beckerman (author) * Giorgio Cafiero (musician) * Adam Daifallah (columnist, Canadian National Post) * Joey Dauben (columnist, Ellis County, TX Press) * Vox Day (columnist, WorldNetDaily.com) * Alex Fak (Business Reporter, The Moscow Times) * Shannon Fiecke (Education Reporter, Winona Daily News) * Anthony Gregory (musician; columnist) * Sabine Herold (founder, Liberté, J'Ecris Ton Nom) * J.H. Huebert, J.D. (freelance writer; attorney) * Peter Jaworski (author; columnist) * Lene Johnson (reporter, The Columbia-Missourian) * Alex Koroknay-Palicz (National Youth Rights Association) * James Lord (musician) * Katherine Mangu-Ward (columnist, The Weekly Standard) * Hannah Metchis (Research Analyst, Competive Enterprise Institute) * Alberto Mingardi (author; columnist) * Cameron Pritchard (Assistant Editor, The Free Radical) * Shawn Regan (musician) * Christina Ricci (actress) * Sara Rimensnyder (Assistant Editor, Reason Magazine) * Jeanine Ring (founder, Salon Total Freedom) * Sam Rosen (CEO, Succeed Young Enterprises) * Ryan H. Sager (columnist, New York Post) * Steven Schub (actor; musician) * Dr. Jason Sorens (founder, Free State Project) * Seth Spores (Editor, College Tree Publishing) * Rhys Southan (film producer; author) * Laura Vanderkam (columnist, USA Today) * Wil Wheaton (actor) * Kyle Williams (columnist, WorldNetDaily.com) * Michael Wilson (film producer) Related Articles An Age of Consent Symposium (1902) A new generation of young Libertarian candidates seeks office (2000) It's for the children, stupid! (November, 2001) Question authority, get active, and be a voice (December, 2001) Young people aren't skeptical enough (December, 2000) Related Links BureauCrash: Crash the State College Libertarians USA National Youth Rights Association Taking Children Seriously |
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