Stand up for liberty, not slavery

(My Eastern New Mexico News column from February 21, 2018- posted in its entirety now that the paper's exclusivity has expired)

A defining trait of libertarians is our opposition to all slavery; we are abolitionists.

Libertarians were among the loudest of the Nineteenth Century's voices against the enslavement of people of African descent. Libertarians are the lone voices against slavery today, because most people believe slavery was abolished rather than realizing it was expanded to include everyone.

Slavery violates life, liberty, and property. No one can have the right to own another person. No one can have the right to force someone to work for the benefit of others. Not even if the laborer is allowed to keep a percentage. Even the most brutal slavers of the past fed, housed, and clothed the slaves if they wanted them to survive to labor another day.

Anti-gun laws are slavery. Slaves, not trusted to make their own decisions, must depend on the master for protection. Free people choose to take responsibility for their own defense and are accountable if they harm an innocent person. Supporting gun control-- which is, in reality, people control-- is to support slavery.

Drug laws punish people for exercising self-ownership. You either recognize every person owns her own body, or you don't. If a person isn't free to self-medicate however she wants, she is not free. Freedom is dangerous, and people will make bad choices. Sometimes their choices destroy them, and sometimes their choices destroy others. You can't have the right to control other people because tragic things might happen. This is slavery.

Taxation forces people to work for others; to hand the fruits of their labors to someone who didn't earn them. It doesn't matter how much the worker is allowed to keep if armed government employees place a prior claim on the earnings. Slavery and theft can't be made right by writing laws.

Those who supported slavery in the past justified their position by claiming the slaves wouldn't survive without masters. Those who advocate government intervention today make the same claim. They are still wrong. One tragedy of slavery is that, without practice, people lose their ability to think, plan ahead, and make good choices. Removing the chains might mean some people will make choices which will lead to disaster. This gets worse the longer their liberty is violated "for their own good".

Slavery of any amount is wrong. No one ever has the right to enslave another, no matter how they might justify it. Be an abolitionist and stand up for individual liberty, even when it scares you. End slavery now.

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