Champions of Liberty Timeline
| 1548 | "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude" | Étienne de la Boétie (1530-1562) | Obedience or passive resistance.[1] |
| 1646 | "An Arrow Against All Tyrants" | Richard Overton (1625-1664) | Self-ownership; Non-aggression.[2] |
| 1690 | "The Second Treatise on Government" | John Locke (1632-1704) | Life, liberty, and property[3] |
| 1758 | "Le Tableau Économique" | Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) | Ordre naturel vs. ordre positif, laissez-faire[4] |
Quotes and Notes: [1] "You sow your crops in order that he may ravage them, you install and furnish your homes to give him goods to pillage; you rear your daughters that he may gratify his lust; you bring up your children in order that he may confer upon them the greatest privilege he knows---to be led into his battles, to be delivered to butchery, to be made the servants of his greed and the instruments of his vengeance; you yield your bodies unto hard labor in order that he may indulge in his delights and wallow in his filthy pleasures; you weaken yourselves in order to make him the stronger and the mightier to hold you in check. From all these indignities, such as the very beasts of the field would not endure, you can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces." - Étienne de la Boétie, "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude" (1548) [2] "To every individual in nature is given an individual property by nature, not to be invaded or usurped by any. For every one, as he is himself, so he has a self-propriety, else could he not be himself; and of this no second may presume to deprive any of without manifest violation and affront to the very principles of nature and of the rules of equity and justice between man and man. Mine and thine cannot be, except this be. No man has power over my rights and liberties, and I over no man's. I may be but an individual, enjoy my self and my self-propriety and may write myself no more than my self, or presume any further; if I do, I am an encroacher and an invader upon another man's right - to which I have no right. For by natural birth all men are equally and alike born to like propriety, liberty and freedom..." - Richard Overton, "An arrow against all tyrants" (1646) [3] "If man in the state of Nature be so free as has been said, if he be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest and subject to nobody, why will he part with his freedom, this empire, and subject himself to the dominion and control of any other power? To which it is obvious to answer, that though in the state of Nature he hath such a right, yet the enjoyment of it is very uncertain and constantly exposed to the invasion of others; for all being kings as much as he, every man his equal, and the greater part no strict observers of equity and justice, the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very insecure. This makes him willing to quit this condition which, however free, is full of fears and continual dangers; and it is not without reason that he seeks out and is willing to join in society with others who are already united, or have a mind to unite for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name - property." - John Locke, "The Second Treatise on Government" (1690) [4] "Laissez Faire, laissez passer. Let it be, let it pass. The phrase is not readily translatable. It was widely used by the Physiocrats in urging freedom from government interference and was adopted by Adam Smith." "Without that sense of security which property gives, the land would still be uncultivated." "You recognize but one rule of commerce; that is ... to allow free passage and freedom of action to all buyers and sellers whoever they may be." "To secure the greatest amount of pleasure with the least possible outlay should be the aim of all economic effort."
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Richard Cantillon (c. early 1680s-1734) http://www.mises.org/story/2187 Essay on the Nature of Commerce in General (1734) First to note: the market is self-regulating (source of Smith's invisible hand) subjective theory of value (supply and demand) monetary theory mercantilist money is wealth vs goods and services are wealth species flow mechanism increase in money leads to higher prices increase in capital/investment means better std of living distinguished between normative and positive economics David Hume had similar economics. Hume knew about/read Cantillon. Also influenced Adam Smith in England, Physiocrats Turgot, Quesnay and Say in France http://mises.org/MultiMedia/mp3/ASC2005/Thornton.mp3 Franois Quesnay, 1694-1774, Le Tableau ƒconomique, 1758 - the leading figure of the Physiocrats, was largely responsible for the distinction between the ordre naturel (nature's order) and the ordre positif (positive, i.e. human-idealized, order). A good government, Quesnay argued, should follow aÊlaissez-faire policy so that the ordre naturel could emerge. Edmund Burke, Vindication of Natural Society (1756) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776) Thomas Jefferson, Dec of Ind (1776) Tom Paine Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, 1790 "The birthright of man, to give you, Sir, a short definition of this disputed right, is such a degree of liberty, civil and religious, as is compatible with the liberty of every other individual with whom he is united in a social compact, and the continued existence of that compact." Wilhelm von Humboldt, Ideen zu einem Versuch, dieGrenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen, written in 1792 William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, 1793 Benjamin Constant brought William Godwin's ideas to France 1790's Charles Compte and Charles Dunoyer William Lloyd Garrison 1805 - 1879, Liberator first editorial 1831 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon What is Property? (1840) Max Stirner, [http://www.nonserviam.com/egoistarchive/stirner/bookhtml/The_Ego.html The Ego and Its Own] (1844) Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862) "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849) Bastiat, Frederic, The Law, 1849 Gustav de Molinari, 1819-1912, The Production of Security (1849) SOIRƒES on the Rue Saint-Lazare: Conversations on Economic Laws and Defense of Property (1849) Josiah Warren (1799-1874), True Civilization 1863 Lysander Spooner 1808-1887 Benjamin Tucker 1854-1939 FrEdEric Passy[frAdArEk« pAsE«] Pronunciation Key, 1822Ð1912, French economist, winner (1901, with J. H. Dunant) of the first Nobel Peace Prize. Herbert Spencer, Social Statics. 1851 Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873), On Liberty (1859) Auberon Herbert, The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State, 1885 Franz Oppenheimer, The State (1908) Albert Jay Nock (October 13, 1870 or 1872 - August 19, 1945) Kevin Carson: http://www.attackthesystem.com/capitalism.html Freedom Operationalized Anyone can point to pretty words on paper, or to official laws and legal fictions. But who really lives in liberty? Who really has freedom. There needs to be an objective measure of freedom - something operational rather than subjective. A good measure of freedom would evaluate States using operationalized criteria like the following. 1) What percentage of State X's territorial occupants are in prison? 2) What percentage of State X's territorial occupants are in some kind of official custody? 3) What percent of the annual GDP is spent by State X? 4) What percent of the active military personnel are stationed outside State X? 5) What percent of the State X's population is in the military? 6) What percent of the State X's population is employed by the government? 7) Does State X own, regulate, or subsidize newspapers? 8) Does State X own, regulate, or subsidize (radio, TV) airwaves? 9) Does State X own, regulate, or subsidize education? 10) Does State X own, regulate, or subsidize currency creation? http://praxeology.net/anarcres.htm Anarchism says, Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license"; and they will define and define freedom out of existence. Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper declarations. On the other hand, so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. - Voltairine de Cleyre, "Anarchism & American Traditions" Tyrants! know that the rights of man are inherent and inalienable, and therefore not to be forfeited by the failure of any form of government, however democratic. Let the American Union perish; let these allied States be torn with faction, or drenched in blood; let this republic realize the fate of Rome and Carthage, of Babylon and Tyre; still, those rights would remain undiminished in strength, unsullied in purity, unaffected in value, and sacred as their Divine Author. If nations perish, it is not because of their devotion to liberty, but for their disregard of its requirements. Man is superior to all political compacts, all governmental arrangements, all religious institutions. - William Lloyd Garrison, The American Union The liberal view of the "minimization" of the state and its replacement by free federalist groups, was first expounded by Wilhelm von Humboldt in his treatise, Ideen zu einem Versuch, dieGrenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen, written in 1792 and published in 1851 (English trans The Sphere and Duties of Government, 1854). John Stuart Mill was influenced by this work in writing On Liberty (1859). Both works exposed the danger in democracy of the "tyranny of the majority," using principles very close to anarchist doctrine. - Dictionary of the History of Ideas - Anarchism Power rests on acquiescence Right of revolution; right to opt out Rights of Man State - the weaker the better; minimum govt; laissez faire The State is an immoral institution Private production of security Law of equal freedom; non-aggression What kind of things can be owned? Everything transferrable and scarce. except land except capital goods Only personnal possessions. How can owned things be used? Any way not invasive. except "usury" (interest, rent, profit) Continance of ownership until traded/gifted until no longer in possession; no absentee ownership entitlement theory vs end-state theory of justice human nature vs man as clay, economic science vs social science emergent order vs planned order elitism vs pluralism political model Mere Anti-Statism Against Authority book idea: Libertarianism taught through historical primary writings. Maybe edited for brevity, modernized, and vernacular standardized
