Would a freedom-based society
devolve into "Lord of the Flies"?

Blazing Reader,

In Bruce Pardy's controversial dissertation, "Freedom and Virtue: Friends or Enemies?" he states:

"Paradoxically, Freedom People have faith that Virtue People lack. They have faith in spontaneous order. If we leave people alone, they say, things will turn out fine. Individual decisions will coalesce into peace and prosperity."

In response, Blazing Pine Cone subscriber Paul Jackson wrote to say:

"Show me in one instance where [this] has proved out... As to 'things will turn out fine'... leave a child on its own for a time and see how things turn out, the second law of thermodynamics or better yet Lord of The Flies."

I've received similar comments from other readers.

I think people are misinterpreting Pardy's words. He wasn't proposing a state based on chaos (which would be a contradiction in terms) but a state based on freedom.

Chaos means no laws.

Freedom, unlike chaos, has at least one law — one rule to rule them all.

As Pardy said, "If we leave people alone." A Lord of the Flies situation is not one where people are leaving each other alone.

The other night, I started listening to an interview with the founders of the United Freedom Party of Alberta, Luke Denis and Chris Hampton. I think they have a very clear definition of what freedom means:

The ability to act as you choose as long as you do no harm to others or to the environment.

A society based on freedom first, would leave everyone free to determine for themselves how best to live their lives — so long as it doesn't infringe on the freedom of others to do the same.

That's the safeguard you have in a society based on freedom. It's not divisive at all, but the most inclusive. It upholds the rights of the only true minority — the individual.

You do your thing, I'll do mine, and as long as your thing doesn't hurt me or anybody else then we're good. And if what you're doing looks like it's making your life better, maybe I'll give it a try.

A society based on enforcing virtue, however, can easily become tyrannical. Indeed, I'd say, it is by default.

As Dr. Gary Magder wrote in response to my previous post on this debate:

"Telling people they should be virtuous is almost like telling people to wear a mask... Some people on the other side — i.e. Covidians and maskaholics — feel they are virtuous. They NEED everyone else to be so too. Is virtue a settled science or is it in the eye of the beholder?"

We came very close to the government enforcing a poisonous injection into people while a choir of virtue sang in the background as those standing up for their freedom were dragged off to jail.

You can dive deeper into Luke Denis and Chris Hampton's alternative political philosophy by listening to their interview over at Strong and Free Canada: https://strongandfreecanada.org/iron-will/fixing-freedom-how-to-unfk-canada-luke-denis-and-chris-hampton/

—John C. A. Manley

PS Luke Denis and Chris Hampton are also the authors of The Freedom Handbook, which you can get here: https://blazingpinecone.com/shop/the-freedom-handbook/

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscirber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/