True Freedom

I hope this doesn't come across as too deep, because I don't believe it is. But in my reading I have come across an idea about human freedom which I had never heard before, and dearly wish I had heard it eons ago. If it is correct, and I argue that it is, it cuts to the very heart of the problems we have in the world, not just today, but essentially for all of human history.

Simply put, real freedom is not personal autonomy. It is not the right and ability to do what is right for you, whatever that means and whatever it entails. True freedom is the right to do what is objectively right. 

That is a fantastic little statement, if I do say so myself. It takes off the table any and all ideas that the individual person, or by extension society, has the right to determine what is right. If we are free it means we are free to do what is right, to do what is good for ourselves and those around us, and not whatever we please based on our collective psychology or personal preference. True freedom would never allow error. It has too much dignity to do that.

The secular world doesn't like that idea because it naturally involves judgment. We ain't s'posed to do that. Never mind that we can and must judge. Must I point out that saying 'don't judge' is, in a very real and tangible way, a judgment? Saying we cannot judge is a self-contradiction. It is, quite frankly, nonsense.

In truth no one has the freedom to do wrong. They may indeed do wrong as a result of free will. We may even have to tolerate certain poor actions for various practical reasons. But no one is in any rational philosophic sense right to do wrong. It is beyond true human freedom, which is the right to act rightly. And only that.

On Capitalism

I am a free market enthusiast through and through, but I do believe that the capitalists (particularly the more libertarian ones) do need to keep one thing in mind: something is not moral merely because there is a market for it.

What brings this up is a link posted on a blog which I frequent. The link prompted folks to a site where you could buy Obama and/or McCain condoms. It was done for a joke, I'm sure, but as the condoms are actually out there it is equally certain they were produced in order to make money.

Nothing wrong with making money, of course. As a rule. Yet there are ways of making money which are morally abhorrent. The whole sex trade, to be sure, or products which are seriously and significantly offensive. No one ought to see Calvin urinating on a Ford symbol, for example. That people will buy this sort of thing is not the point; nor is the point that human freedom may call for grudging toleration of such things. The ultimate point must be that the act or product must be moral in and of itself in order to be moral in the free market.

I am not saying that the government should become involved in regulating what are admittedly often only juvenile paraphernalia (prostitution and the like are another matter). Still, it would nice if the markets would be a bit more self regulating and eschew such garbage.

To rephrase an old saw, I have come to the conclusion that capitalism is the worst economic system except for all the other economic systems. It is a sobering thought.