Students! Rise Against This Tyranny

What is an "adult"? Whereas in older times puberty was considered a sign from Nature confirming adulthood, nowadays, with the curse of Legislation, all is arbitrary. You can drive at 16, you can vote at 18, you cannot marry till 21, and you cannot drink alcohol till 25 - the last, according to the State of Maharashtra.

At the London School of Economics, the Students' Union runs a pub on campus called "The Three Tuns." Even undergraduates are welcome there - and the booze is cheaper than in the market. In India, I have seen many post-graduate institutions - like IIMs - where booze is banned. This is nonsense. Students should rebel against such tyranny. 

The news report on the new Legislation in Maharashtra ends with these words:

Fine would be imposed for under-age drinking and there is a provision of more dry days every year. No liquor shop will be allowed within one kilometre of educational and social institutions, government offices, religious places and highways. There is also a limit on bottles allowed per individual and a liquor shop or bar may be shut down if 25 per cent of the residents of a municipal ward demand its closure.

This is Total Tyranny - designed to ensure that the police and excise officialdom prey on the alcohol trade, as do local "residents' associations" - thereby politicising everything. The cops will also prey on young people who might want to enjoy a drink. And what will happen to tourists who desire a beer on a hot "dry day"? That is why there are no dry days in Goa. I know one such tourist who came to Calcutta on a dry day - and took the next flight out!

What, indeed, is an "adult"? Murray Rothbard answered the question is his The Ethics of Liberty - a book all students, especially of Law, ought to carefully study (pdf here). Rothbard begins by asserting that all legislation on the matter must necessarily be arbitrary, while Nature gives its signal - puberty - most clearly and without bias. He adds that every child has the right to run away from home - and if he sets himself up in life, as a self-supporting individual, the Law ought to treat him as an adult. By that standard, while students are usually dependent on parents till very late in life, the "working children" of our streets ought to be considered as adults and allowed the free liberty that all adults enjoy.

The "ethics of liberty" do not inform this abominable piece of Legislation that has emerged from the Maharashtra Assembly. It ought to be struck down by the courts as not only arbitrary, but also as one that tramples on the rights of all young voters - who must be presumed adults, which is why the vote is entrusted to them.

It was Bastiat, of course, who said it best - of "democrats" who praise the "wisdom of the voter" before the elections; but after they are elected, they think the voter is a numskull and enact all manner of legislation to "protect the voter from himself." In reality, if the voter is so dumb that he cannot handle his drink, then he is unfit to vote, too. Thus, such Legislation takes away the legitimacy of those elected, for they have been voted into office by persons who cannot handle Freedom.

This nasty alcohol policy of the Maharashtra State is anti-student. It is anti-youth. The youth must protest.

And may The Force be with them. 

Here's to Students' Union Pubs on all campuses!