Freedom is your right, this itself just and to deny you your freedom would be unjust. And as a just right, no one can morally deny your freedom to you for whatever the ends, as has happened to billions of people. For example, some rulers and their supporters deny their people freedom by arguing that this is necessary to develop the country economically, achieve national glory, promote racial or ethnic purity, or create a communist paradise. This is to make your freedom a tool that those in power can manipulate or ignore, depending on the job they want done. This is a destructive premise that too long intellectuals have allowed dictators and their supporters to assume. Your freedom is not a tool; it does not have a utility attached to it that justifies government in granting it or taking it away. In this sense, freedom is a moral good, something that is to be sought or held for its intrinsic moral value, and for no other reason.

Amazingly, there are actually consequences to freedom that are also important moral goods. When we compare what happens to an economy and society when people are free and democratic versus un free, the results of freedom are often the very ends that some dictators try to fulfil by repressing freedom. So stressing that freedom is a moral good is not erecting a firewall against any negative consequences, for the consequences are not only positive, but moral goods in themselves. It is like eating fruit, which is tasty and filling, inherently good, but which also reduces the probability of getting cancer, a stroke, and a heart attack.

One of freedom’s desirable consequences is to promote unrivalled wealth and prosperity; it is an unbeatable engine of technological and economic growth. As an example of how freedom can have this miraculous result, look at the life of William (Bill) Gates, who could not have created the computer software he did other than in a free society, and which software has contributed greatly to our prosperity.

Truly freedom creates prosperity. It unleashes human talent, invention and innovation, creating wealth where none existed before. Societies that have embraced freedom have made themselves rich by exploiting others, as the elites of less-free countries do. They cannot become rich by making others poorer. They become rich only by proving others with what they want and making other people’s lives better. The chief beneficiaries of the economic dynamism of free societies are the poor. Free societies are economically more equal than non-free societies enjoy luxuries that were undreamed of just a few years ago, luxuries available only to the ruling elites of non-free countries. International trade gives entrepreneurs new market opportunities and has helped lift more than a billion people out of abject poverty in the last twenty years. Freedom is truly one of the most benign and productive forces in human history.

Attempts by governments to equalize wealth or income are counter-productive. They destroy the incentives for hard work and enterprise and discourage people from building up the capital that boosts the productivity of the whole society. A free society is a spontaneous society. It builds up from the actions of individuals, following the rules that promote peaceful cooperation. It is not imposed from above the political authorities. Government has a very limited role in a free society. It exists to prevent harm being done to its citizens by maintaining and enforcing justice. It does not try to impose material equality and it does not prohibit activities just because some people consider them disagreeable or offensive. Leaders cannot plunder citizens for their own benefit, grant favours to their friends, or use their power against their enemies.

The government of a free society is constrained by the rule of law. Its laws apply to everyone equally. There must be due process of law in all cases, with fair trials and no lengthy detention without trial. People accused of offences must be treated as innocent until proved guilty, and individuals must not be harassed by being prosecuted several times for the same offence.

Tolerating other people’s ideas and lifestyles benefits society. Truth is not always obvious; it emerges in the battle of censors to suppress only wrong ideas. They may mistakenly suppress ideas and ways of acting that would greatly benefit society in the future. However, communications technology is making it more difficult for authoritarian governments to hide their actions from the rest of the world. As a result, more and more countries are opening up to trade and tourism, and new ideas are spreading. More people see the benefits of economic and social freedom, and are demanding them.

Written By Kunle Adekunle. [kunlezy2012@yahoo.com]
Contributing Author www.brainnewsng.com