Quote:
Originally Posted by scottw
is a professor of law at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.
and wrote recently regarding his undertaking to read much of the classic "iconic" conservative literature...found this very interesting
A Liberal Reads the Great Conservative Works - Carl T. Bogus - National Review Online
money quote:
"Conservatives value above all else what Berlin called the negative vision of liberty, namely, freedom from coercion. Liberals are more willing to balance that against the positive vision of liberty — that is, having a reasonable opportunity to realize one’s potential. The negative vision focuses conservatives on restricting the government’s ability to interfere in people’s lives. The positive vision leads liberals to believe that government has a role in guaranteeing baseline minimums in education, medical care, and healthy communities."
if I could ask the professor one, ok...more than one question I supposed I ask him if he felt that the massive programs of "baseline minimums" that liberals are devoted to are actually allowing those receiving government handouts in one form or another to "reach one's potential" or are they more often creating an expanding culture of dependence on the "positive vision" which clearly leads liberals to believe that govenment has a role in guaranteeing all sorts of subsidies and services? and what of the massive debt being accrued to fund this "positive vision", if the debt to fund the "positive vision" results in economic collapse, can those dependent on the "positive vision" still expect a reasonable ability to "reach one's potential" from the liberal and how does the liberal plan to continue to pay for the maintenance of this "baseline minimum"? Can one even enjoy the "positive vision of liberty" without government assistance or intrusion and guarantees of "stuff"
this also falls right in line with Obama's claim and belief that the Constitution is a document of "negative liberties" and is missing something...which is said to be the series of statements of things that the government must or should do for you  |
An advantage of negative liberties (limits on government coercion) expressed in the Constitution is the near limitless unnamed freedoms remaining to the individual. A disadvantage of expressed positive liberties (what the goverfnment must do for you) is the implied narrowing of freedoms to what the government allows. It is that twisted use of speech that fascists employ and that Orwell warned against wherein freedom becomes slavery--using positive, beneficent sounding words to actually achieve their opposite. Freedom is, essentially, an individual exercise and responsibility. In society, the individual limits freedom to the degree required for that society to function in accordance to its "constitution." Freedom is not granted by governments or their societal foundation, it is restricted. To call any governmental or societal grant of a liberty "positive" is to admit that government's power over the individual.
This reminds me of FDR's four freedoms speech in which he spoke of the freedom of speech and worship, and the frreedom FROM want and fear-- that governments should provide those. Actually, our Constitution does not grant those freedoms (speech and worship), it specifically denies the government from making laws that prohibit them. It is freedom FROM want and fear that is disturbing to actual freedom. If government must provide for the "freedom" from want, it must be given the power to provide. That power must be forfeited by the individual and granted to the government.