Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there are more than two coordinates in liberty, (ie. Liberty and tyranny), there are actually four. There is intolerant liberty, tolerant liberty, intolerant tyranny and tolerant tyranny. Two poles are pro liberty and two are anti liberty. Each is based on it’s own core beliefs and world philosophy. When government and the peopleare captured by one pole or another, it will lead to some inevitable, predictable outcomes. When you look around, keeping an eye out for the subtlety, between intolerant liberal, intolerant tyrant, tolerant tyrant or tolerant libertarian, the difference will become obvious. It is useful to understand the difference is more subtle, than just for liberty and for tyranny, it is more nuanced than that. It is in the subtle difference that the societal results lay.
Intolerant liberty is where one expects absolute liberty for him or her, group, faction or race but is intolerant of the liberty’s of others. This pole is philosophically based on the idea of the superiority of the self or group. That oneself is superior to everyone else, in every way, and so why should those untermensch have the same liberty as us superior men. Us ubermen. Intolerant libertarians generally create an oligarchy. The group that has liberty, and only has liberty, is an aristocracy that rules for it’s own interests, oligarchy. An intolerant liberal will scream about the rights of this or that group while ignoring his or her own crushing the rights of others. They look to the mote in the eye of society while ignoring the plethora of planks in their own.
Intolerant tyranny is where one believes nothing, no action other than what is expressly allowed, can be taken… in the name of order. The intolerant tyrant is a sociopathic or perhaps even a psychopathic oppressor, where others are not even human beings, but playthings. When society is dominated by intolerant tyrants it must become despotic. The actions of each intolerant tyrant leading inexorably to total oppression. You know someone is an intolerant tyrant by their constant negative attitude towards anything and everything. They build a bench from which they self appointedly judge the world, and all it’s inhabitants… and they find you and I wanting. Never once seeing themselves in a mirror, or if they do, it is only to admire their own power, charisma and superiority.
Tolerant tyranny is when one is of the opinion that order should be strictly enforced but a wide range of actions allowed within that high fence. The intolerant tyrant can allow anyone a few things, in his or her world, but anything disfavored will be met with extreme punishment. Tolerant tyranny also leads to oligarchy. The form of government where a small group rule for their own interests. Tolerant tyranny however of all yet mentioned is the only one where free enterprise can function sufficiently to generate some level of prosperity. Much of which will be vacuumed up to the oligarchy like seigniorage, tribute, taxes, or whatever else they call stealing by government today. The tolerant tyrant is always on the lookout for things to be outraged over, and violence is often the first resort.
Tolerant liberty is when people do what they want and respect the right of others as well. The tolerant libertarian is self assured. Believing our fellows are our equals, not in specifics, but as a whole. This pole creates incentives for people to become self controlled, courteous and respectful. If tolerant liberty is the dominant attitude, society will prosper, economically, spiritually, and government will become less powerful and therefore less corrupt. You can always tell the tolerant libertarian, because they are as protective of the rights of others, as they are their own rights… especially the rights of their enemies. The US founding fathers were in large part, tolerant libertarians, and created the US system of government with that mindset in place.
The distinction is more subtle than the old liberty tyranny dichotomy. There is tolerant liberty, intolerant liberty, tolerant tyranny and intolerant tyranny. All of which create predictable outcomes depending on how each scales within a society. Each person on a distribution graph of the four points. We all fall somewhere. We therefor can effect the overall distribution ourselves. By personal action. We can also take collective action to create a more tolerant and libertarian society and culture. To provide those incentives, for society to become tolerant libertarian, we must put forward and vote for candidates that are tolerant libertarians, constitutionalists, and conservatives. If corruption indeed flows from the top down, as was Confucius philosophy… so does virtue.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
