Cathy Young, a contributing editor of Reason Magazine, and self-described libertarian has argued in favor of restricting civil liberties to promote security: “It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes; perhaps there are no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks. Even in the Declaration of Independence, the right to liberty is preceded by the right to life.”
The right to life is the most fundamental right, yes. No argument there. However, Cathy Young forgets, or never understood, that the right to liberty is a necessary requirement for maintaining and furthering one’s life. Without it the right to life means nothing. She leaves out the right to property (not explicitly mentioned in the Declaration, although implied), which is a necessary requirement for the rights to life and liberty. In short, if the right to liberty can be violated to allegedly protect the right to life, then the right to liberty means nothing and neither does the right to life. If we are not free to make the choices and perform the actions we think necessary for the maintenance and furtherance of our lives, then our lives are not our own. The rights to liberty and property are necessary corrolaries of the right to life.
Cathy Young: Libertarian or not?
Not.
On a related note: the libertarian imposter has ignorantly and viciously attacked the work of a genuine libertarian, Thomas Woods, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Here’s Woods himself (here and here), and Jeffrey Tucker, on the issue.
Geoffrey is an Aristotelian-Libertarian political philosopher, writer, editor, and web designer. He is the founder of the