In a few days, I’ll be on Eleuthera, a Bahamian out-island named for the Greek word meaning ”free”. I’ve been thinking about freedom lately. The word seems to be bandied about a lot in light of recent world events. My preferred definition comes from The Objective Standard. Freedom: The right to act in accordance with one’s judgement, free from coercion by the state or others. I do not doubt that those who have chanted those words while rioting in the streets thought deeply about what that word means to them.
As we tie up pesky loose ends that delayed our travel and gratefully generate the last-minute money necessary to fund the trip, I am truly free. We make our own living, create our own schedules, place our own value on experiences. I am free to make my own decisions. I am free to use my own judgement. I am not coerced by the state or others. I am reliant solely upon myself. This is a fundamental right that came at great cost to the defenders and creators of our country and it is a right that is at the foundation of the United States of America…perhaps exclusively and (dare I say) fleetingly.
I can already feel the sea and sun on the beach of a friendly neighboring country. Shouldn’t it be the right of every American to enjoy a couple of weeks of vacation a year? We have the right to pursue happiness, right? Don’t we have the right to a good job and a fair wage and paid vacation? Isn’t it common knowledge that all human beings deserve at minimum the very basics and in a country as great as America, a standard of living well beyond the average?
“Rights” is perhaps more thrown around now than any other word. ”Rights” were plastered on countless protest signs across the U.S. this week, though it is a word less understood by our country than any other. It is specifically misunderstood by our Wisconsin educators, union leaders, and politicians.
My personal favorite explanation of rights comes (lengthily) from Ayn Rand: A “right” is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated action—which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.) The concept of a “right” pertains only to action—specifically, to freedom of action. It means freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by other men. Thus, for every individual, a right is the moral sanction of a positive—of his freedom to act on his own judgment, for his own goals, by his own voluntary, uncoerced choice. As to his neighbors, his rights impose no obligations on them except of a negative kind: to abstain from violating his rights. The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave. Bear in mind that the right to property is a right to action, like all the others: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and the consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a guarantee that a man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will own it if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values. (“Man’s Rights,” The Virtue of Selfishness) Read that through a few times and let it sink. Then, re-read it and dispel all of your arguments by remembering it applies to ALL men, not just you.
I looked through The Bill of Rights and never once found a right to work, right to fair wage, teachers rights, workers rights, employers rights, or any of the other rights being volleyed around in the protests this month. I perused The Constitution and never saw “Workers Rights are Human Rights,” either. I don’t want to risk sounding freakishly like Glen Beck, but where is the justification for this multitude of “rights” we are all claiming in American protests this month? Are they worth fighting for, dying for, harming another individual and robbing him of his real rights - you know, the Constitutional kind? And if so, what must the new Bill of Rights be? Article 1-You have the right to work and you have the right to determine the value of your work and the compensation you will receive, free from coercion and reason, regardless of what you are producing, its market, or its creators. Article 2-You have the right to not work and still be provided for by other men and the state. Article 3-You have the right to produce anything you choose, free from coercion and reason, providing the product of your effort is used to provide for the common rights and needs of all men. Notice the consequential lack of the fundamental freedom – the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Visiting another country requires that a person be aware of its politics, customs, laws, people, etc. We’re not traveling to Egypt this year, for obvious reasons. We won’t be visiting North Korea any time soon. Mexico is a little iffy these days. We’ll probably avoid all sandy Middle East areas. Really, who wants to visit Wisconsin, Illinois, or Ohio in March? As US citizens, we’re pretty free to go anywhere we want, whenever we want. We’re free to choose our profession, our amount of disposable income and time and the values on which we spend it, our quality of life. We are not hampered in any way from attaining what we each choose to value.
We chose to go to Eleuthera because we like the ocean there – hunting and eating lobster and conch, snorkeling, etc. It’s warm and uncrowded. Its few cultural attractions can be consumed in moderation. It is a very freeing relaxed island that does not require you to engage in its internal operations (read: no mandatory guilt imposed because the European homeowners are paying the illegal Haitian gardeners slave wages, the passing cruise ships are polluting the sea, or a gallon of milk costs $10). There, you turn inward as you look outward and come home with new perspective, appreciation, and drive. We chose to create a business that is seasonal and affords us the time and money to travel where we choose in the winter.
We’re all humans with the same fundamental right to life. Our brains are no different from the oppressed brains in the Middle East or uneducated brains in Wisconsin. However; only America is based upon that right and we ALL have choice. We ALL can choose our life, on our own, with no coercion from anyone. We are ultimately responsible for that life. For now, we have true freedom and a free market (kind of) to compliment it. We are champions, gods that can walk across the world with no incumbrances – no coercion by the state or other men.
WHY WOULD WE NOT CHOOSE THE LIBERTY AND OPPORTUNITY THAT HAS BEEN LAID AT OUR FEET?
If you have CHOSEN to become a dependent of the state or a company that doesn’t pay you enough, that doesn’t provide for your family, that doesn’t afford you a few weeks in the Bahamas, that doesn’t satisfy your heart’s desires – CHOOSE SOMETHING DIFFERENT. We’re not slaves. We’re not victims. We’re not Canadians. We are gods, masters of the universe, free men. Capitalize on your right and your freedom and the dumb luck that caused you to be born in this country at this time in history.
I’m going to the Bahamas. Because I can. I have the right. I have the freedom.
Long Live Lady Liberty.
