Liberty

Many people think of liberty as the ability to do what you want to do without outside interference. Of course that's too simplistic a definition because often what we wish to do may interfere with someone else's liberty. So we adjust and say that liberty is the ability to do what you want to do as long as it doesn't interfere with someone else's ability to do the same.

There is a problem with that definition, however. America is a country with a strong tradition of individualism. I think that sometimes this blinds some people to the ways in which all people in any given society are tied to one another. There is almost no decision we can make that does not affect someone else in some way.

Where we choose to shop positively affects the economic livelihoods of those working at that place of business and negatively affects the livelihoods of those who work at a competitor. What we choose to eat and how, or if, we choose to exercise affects not only our individual health, but the healthcare costs of those around us. (In any insurance system, whether private or public, the premiums of healthy individuals help cover the medical expenses of less healthy individuals.)

This creates gray areas in which different individuals' liberties come into conflict with one another. Some people might not like it, but I don't believe there is any system in which everyone is as free as they would like to be. When these conflicts occur, we need to determine where we draw the lines of who is in the right and who is in the wrong.

There is no easy way to do this. Often these conflicts involve making apples to oranges comparisons. How do we compare the importance of my liberty to choose what substances I put into my body with the economic liberty of those who may end up paying the costs if those substances have an adverse effect on my health? If I am influential and say something that leads my supporters to act in ways harmful to certain groups of people, how do we compare the importance of my freedom of speech with the rights of the harmed group?

I can't tell you the answer, and I'd be wary of anyone who tells you that they can. These are not the kinds of questions that have "right" and "wrong" answers. We may have our beliefs and opinions, but they are no more valid than anyone else's. At least, that is my belief and opinion. However, in a society committed to the free exchange of ideas, I believe these lines can be drawn organically from the back and forth of people with differing opinions. But, we'd have to be willing to talk to each other first, and our growing inability to do so makes this more difficult every day.