Government seems to operate on the principle that if even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently, no one can be allowed to be free.
Interpretation
This quote implies that the incompetence of one individual should not determine the freedom of all.
Harry Browne's quote reflects a philosophical stance on the nature of freedom and governance. It suggests that the overreach of government often stems from a belief that the incompetence or inability of a single person to use their freedom responsibly justifies restrictions on the freedoms of everyone. This highlights a fundamental tension between individual liberties and the role of authority in society.
In practice
In a debate about government policies that limit personal freedoms, this quote can illustrate the potential dangers of assuming all individuals are not capable of making responsible decisions.
Asset forfeiture is a mockery of the Bill of Rights. There is no presumption of innocence, no need to prove you guilty (or even charge you with a crime), no right to a jury trial, no right to confront your accuser, no right to a court-appointed attorney (even if the government has just stolen all your money), and no right to compensation for the property that's been taken.
Conservatives say the government can't end poverty by force, but they believe it can use force to make people moral. Liberals say government can't make people be moral, but they believe it can end poverty. Neither group attempts to explain why government is so clumsy and destructive in one area but a paragon of efficiency and benevolence in the other.
No one ever died from smoking marijuana, but millions of people have died by believing politicians.
When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.
You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.
A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.
Where it gets weird is that nowadays there are millions of people on this earth who call themselves followers of Jesus, but their lives look nothing like His, and they're not obeying the things that He called them to do.
Liberty is a word which, according as it is used, comprehends the most good and the most evil of any in the world.
You can't hear a word and just hear it as raw sound; it always evokes an associated meaning and emotion in the brain.
Poverty in itself does not make men into a rabble; a rabble is created only when there is joined to poverty a disposition of mind, an inner indignation against the rich, against society, against the government.
Society can give its young men almost any job and they'll figure how to do it. They'll suffer for it and die for it and watch their friends die for it, but in the end, it will get done. That only means that society should be careful about what it asks for. ... Soldiers themselves are reluctant to evaluate the costs of war, but someone must. That evaluation, ongoing and unadulterated by politics, may be the one thing a country absolutely owes the soldiers who defend its borders.
We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
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