Liberty
Resistance is Crucial to the Advancement of Liberty
Patrick Henry told us that “government is no more than a choice among evils.” Thomas Paine held the same view. In Common Sense, he wrote, “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its...
Of the Natural Rights of Individuals
Do people exist for the sake of government? Or is it the other way around? That’s the question James Wilson attempts to answer in his 1790 work, “Of the Natural Rights of Individuals.” A signer of the Declaration of Independence and member of the...
The New Human Rights Paradigm
There is a powerful physical basis for the natural rights claimed by the words “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights” found in the Declaration of Independence. My intent is not to remove the creator from our rights, but to show how that...
Freedom vs. Liberty: How Subtle Differences Between These Two Big Ideas Changed Our World
“I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the...