Liberty versus Democracy

Democracy and Liberty are two entirely different things. Rebels and revolutionaries around the world who are "fighting for democracy" should heed this truth - and young Indians need to note this as well. The generation that "fought for freedom" here in 1947 didn't give us anything but the empty vote. No raja, maharaja or nawab ever outlawed ganja in Indian history, nor the nautch girl.

Democracy is not Freedom. Rather, it is Legislation - new ones with every passing day. Now they have even banned smoking cigarettes in bars and restaurants. Unlimited legislation is nothing by Arbitrary Rule - the "will of a few" - and is Tyranny.

A column by Walter Williams makes this very point with regard to America: that their founding fathers established a "republic" and not a "democracy." He writes:

What's the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence when he said, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe." That means Congress does not grant us rights; their job is to protect our natural or God-given rights.

For example, the Constitution's First Amendment doesn't say Congress shall grant us freedom of speech, the press and religion. It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."

Since the republicanism of revolutionary America was heavily influenced by Cato's Letters, let me turn my reader once again to what these early "independent Whigs" thought of Liberty and Government:

By Liberty, I understand the Power which every Man has over his own Actions, and his Right to enjoy the Fruit of his Labour, Art, and Industry.... The Fruits of a Man's honest Industry are just Rewards of it, ascertained to him by natural and eternal Equity, as is his Title to use them in the Manner which he thinks fit... every Man is sole Lord and Arbiter of his own private Actions and Property - A Character of which no Man living can divest him but by Usurpation, or by his own Consent.

The entering into political Society, is so far a Departure from this natural Right, that to preserve it was the sole Reason why Men did so...

That Right being conveyed by the Society to their publick Representative, he can execute the same no further than the Benefit and Security of that Society requires he should. When he exceeds his Commission, his Acts are as extrajudicial as those of any private Officer usurping an unlawful Authority...

What is Government, but a Trust committed by All, or the Most, to One, or a Few, who are to attend upon the Affairs of All, that every one may, with the more Security, attend upon his own? A great and honourable Trust, but too seldom honourably executed; those who possess it having it often more at Heart to increase their Power, than to make it useful; and to be terrible, rather than beneficent.

If I were to re-state these Principles today, in Practical terms, it would be: Freedom and Liberty mean nothing else than that the the police do not interfere. Property is Inviolate. All consensual trades are peaceably conducted. And a Natural Order prevails. Policemen, lawyers, magistrates, and judges are not required.


The following quote from the same source tells of the harm done by "public education" - and the good done by "public intellectuals":

Of all the Sciences that I know in the World, that of Government concerns us most, and is the easiest to be known, and yet is the least understood. Most of those who manage it would make the lower World believe that there is I know not what Difficulty and Mystery in it, far above vulgar Understandings; which Proceeding of theirs is direct Craft and Imposture: Every Ploughman knows a good Government from a bad one, from the Effects of it: he knows whether the Fruits of his Labour be his own, and whether he enjoy them in Peace and Security. And if he does not know the Principles of Government, it is for want of Thinking and Enquiry, for they lie open to common Sense; but people are generally taught not to think of them at all, or to think wrong of them.

One vital area where the entire world has been "taught to think wrong" is about money. Keynesian "monetary policy" makes it full of "Difficulty and Mystery." Yet, it is nothing but "Craft and Imposture." The original US Constitution did not give the Federal Government the power to print notes - but only mint standard coins. Gold and silver coins were money. Hard money. Simple and easy for all to understand.

Let us return to that simple world of Natural Liberty and Honest Money - that is, Money grounded in our History, and not this "theoretical money."