Academic

DAVID BOAZ: There?s no such thing as a golden age of lost liberty. For many libertarians, ?the r?

By Glenn Reynolds

DAVID BOAZ: There’s no such thing as a golden age of lost liberty.

For many libertarians, “the road to serfdom” is not just the title of a great book but also the window through which they see the world. We?re losing our freedom, year after year, they think. They (we) quote Thomas Jefferson: ?The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.? We read books with titles like Freedom in Chains, Lost Rights, The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans, and yes, The Road to Serfdom. . . . We should focus on what is actually important?the exercise of arbitrary power over others.

Read the whole thing. I’ve had this argument, too. And I think this sort of despairing, reverse-Whig view of history also discourages people from fighting for liberty. But we’ve recovered before, and we’ll recover again — if we want to.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on April 07, 2010 (boomark / email).