[lbo-talk] negative freedoms

John Thornton jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Sat May 17 12:44:54 PDT 2008


andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> Why do you think that we radical lawyers spend so much of our time defending liberal rights and rights even older than that, like the right to habeas corpus that the Barons wrung from bad King John at Runnymede in 1215?

Because you're tools of the man?

Seriously, I doubt you'll convince Ian he is incorrect. If Ian truly believes rights are equivalent or near equivalent to paternalism or authoritarianism he's probably not going to change his mind based on rationality.

Do you imagine you (or I, or anyone) could rationalize Nozick into believing otherwise?

One can easily envision a society with a guaranteed minimum income, free education, free health care, free housing, etc. that places no conditions on the use of those things. Removal of institutional pressures doesn't eliminate other social pressures directed towards conformity but no society can be free from such pressures completely.

John Thornton



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