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Dear Friend of Freedom,
Friends of FFF often point out that the ever-burgeoning group of college-aged libertarians is the key to the future. That’s true, but I think they’re more than that. I believe they are also a key to the present.
Last year, The Future of Freedom Foundation, in conjunction with the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), conducted two major college tours called “Civil Liberties, the War on Terrorism, and the Constitution” on college campuses in the East, Midwest, and West. FFF also delivered presentations at the annual International Students for Liberty conference in Washington, D.C., which 1,500 young libertarians attended.
This year, I traveled to New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to speak to YAL groups at the University of Albany, the University of North Carolina, and Slippery Rock University. I also recently spoke to two groups live over the Internet at the University of Wisconsin (which won a “Best Event” award from YAL) ...
Market advocates tend to respect the intellect of their fellow human beings. You can tell by their reliance on philosophical, moral, economic, and historical arguments when trying to persuade others. But what if most people’s aversion to the market isn’t founded on philosophy, morality, economics, or history? What if their objection is aesthetic?
More and more I’ve come to think that is the case, and I believe I witnessed an example recently at a lecture I gave at St. Lawrence University. During the Q&A a woman asked, in all sincerity, why society couldn’t do without money, since so many bad things are associated with it. She also suggested that cooperation is better than market competition. I replied that since money facilitates exchange and exchange is cooperation, it follows that money facilitates cooperation — a lovely thing, indeed. Government, I added, corrupts money.
I also said that competition is what happens when we are free to decide with whom we will cooperate. ...
Most people believe that Edward Snowden, who has confirmed that the U.S. government spies on us, broke the law. Even many of his defenders concede this.
While in one sense the statement “Snowden broke the law” may be trivially true, in another, deeper sense it is untrue. He may have violated the terms of legislation passed by Congress and signed by a president (criminal intent would have to be proved), but a venerable line of thought says legislation is not the same thing as law. (F.A. Hayek drew the distinction, obviously, in Law, Legislation, and Liberty, volume 1: “Unlike law itself, which has never been ‘invented’ in the same sense, the invention of legislation came relatively late in the history of mankind.”) Legislation may reflect the law, but it may also contradict it. In this line of thought, which dates back to antiquity, “law” refers to natural law. Any legislative product that conflicts with the natural law, so ...
