Promoting Freedom Close to Home

Tibor R. Machan

Over the several decades that I have championed the fully free society,
one that basically conforms to the principles of the Declaration of
Independence, I have had the good fortune to be able to address many
people about this topic. Much of this consists of writing books, articles,
letters to editors, scholarly papers and columns, of course. But aside
from writing, I have also been privileged to be invited to talk to a great
many and highly varied groups of people, with such organizations as the
Rotary Club, Kiwanis, and the like all over America and indeed the globe.
Quite recently, for example, I gave a series of lectures in the Republic
of Georgia as well as in Santiago, Chile.

One persistent question I have faced all these years is what an
individual person can do to promote advances toward a free society. And,
naturally, there are nearly as many answers to this as there are
individuals asking the question. So, quite often I have to remind people
that while I can give some general ideas, based on my work and experience,
they are the ones who are in the best position to answer the question
about what to do to advance liberty. Yet, there are a few specific ideas
that will help nearly anyone concerned with promoting liberty in their own
communities. One, in particular, is very worthwhile to keep in mind. It
can guide one to do things that may really bear fruit.

I have in mind advocating the decoupling of government from the
innumerable projects that it’s now involved with everywhere. Governments
are now supporting, through public funds acquired by way of taxation,
innumerable projects in every community across the world and if one is
dedicated to advancing liberty an important step in that direction is to
promote removing government from all these “community” endeavors.

If some convention center is widely desired, or a baseball park or
football stadium, or some other recreation or athletic facility, it is
imperative that these be supported voluntarily and those who want these
facilities go about soliciting the support instead of relying on the
extortionist approach of taxation. Champions of liberty should vigorously
advocate that!

After all, it is not difficult for most people to appreciate that those
uninterested in football should be free to devote their own resources to
some purpose of their own choosing instead of having these resources taken
from them against their will and put to use for what they do not want, a
football stadium. This is very simple to convey in letters, conversations,
on talk programs, etc. One can always make mention of the fact that this
is supposed to be a free country where people have the right to pursue
their own happiness and not to be conscripted to help in the pursuit of
others’.

Also, this is a country with a reasonably strong individualist tradition,
which can also be deployed in defense of having those who want something
go about securing support for their projects, leaving others to do so in
support of what they want. We all have ideals, goals, dreams, purposes of
our own, often not unlike those of some others but rarely those of all
others.

And that’s an excellent reason why the various community projects people
now tend habitually to expect governments to support should actually be
supported privately, voluntarily. Sure, there are some projects where this
idea would be too radical to promote—airports, roads, and schools should
be funded voluntarily but the governmental habit is too powerful here and
it will take a while before advances toward privatization can be made
about those. But swimming pools? Ice skating rinks? Volley ball and tennis
courts? Even football stadiums, while quite large projects, have no
business being built with funds extorted from people who care not a whit
about football.

I believe that this particular idea, so closely related to what a free
society is about—namely, people being free to pursue their own objectives
so long as they do not violated anyone’s rights—holds out considerable
promise of gaining ascent from one’s neighbors. Even if it will not fly
immediately, it can become a focus of discussion, of editorializing, of
local talk programs and so forth.

So what can you do to promote liberty? One thing among others is to
advocate getting government—the governing right in your own back yard,
your city or county—out of the task of supporting special interest
projects pretending to serve everyone’s interest. Let those who want these
often very worthy goals (to some) get up the support from them and let the
rest support what they value.