Pursuit of Happiness

Scott Bushee

There are way too many laws. I find this to be disconcerting. If you think about it, laws are nothing but means for the government to control you. And to be controlled is to not be free. It is contradictory to say that you cherish freedom, and, at the same time, seek to have more laws enacted.

This Wednesday, the Libertarian party will be hosting a debate about a set of laws which are particularly dangerous to freedom. These laws are those which deal with so-called consensual crimes. These are, by definition, crimes which have no victim. It is absurd to hold that people, who have a natural right to property in one's person, can be imprisoned without violating the rights of someone else because, as Jefferson said, "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others."

If we wish to restore freedom to America, all laws dealing with consensual crimes must be abolished.

In a free country it should be perfectly legal for three 18-year-old guys to pay two other guys, four women, and a monkey to get together at their house, play drinking strip poker, smoke up, have an orgy, tape it and then distribute the tape on the Internet.

Who are they hurting? Someone's sensibilities? So? Anyone who thinks their sense of not being offended is more valuable than the freedom of others should move to Cuba or Russia anyway.

The problem is that people have lost the ability to differentiate the moral from the political. It is completely different to say that something is immoral than it is to say that something should be illegal. Personally, I think that many of the things I advocate decriminalizing are immoral and, as a free person, I would not engage in them.

I just realize something that many don't; I am not the dictator of the universe. I have no right to forcibly interfere in your life unless you attempt to forcibly interfere with my life or the life of another, and therefore I cannot consent to a government to do so in my stead. Maybe when more people realize this, we can live in a free society again.

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Scott Bushee can be reached at: [email protected]

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