Civicwiki:The Path

America’s political history tells us that the object of most political thinkers, that were around during our beginnings, was to establish a society in which each individual, with the smallest possible deference to the authority of his rulers, would have both the right and responsibility of guiding his own actions within a framework of legitimate rights and duties. That tradition is still valid, but being now old and, for some, stale ore even passe, it could use a restatement in today's terms.

A CW premise: We hold this truth to be self-evident: that each of us should be free, and moreover, that this is universally valid. Another CW premise: Most of society’s ills can be cured by maximizing our freedom as individuals. We will work to substantiate these premises. CW articles will discuss what we mean by freedom, maximizing freedom, and how that makes a good society. (Freedom and liberty are synonymous in the way we use them on CW.) Such a discussion is necessary because the desirability of freedom is not self-evident to everyone. Belief in individual freedom seems to have a shelf life. After a couple of centuries we take it for granted; its value seems to wane; society has always been imperfect and we want to create “better worlds.” At no time in the history of the planet has any society done that except by creating more liberty. “A better world” has never been achieved by trading liberty for it.

Having articulated the principles of freedom in today’s terms, we will then apply those principles to the problems of our time. CW will discuss the meaning of liberty and the various ‘freedoms’ that are sometimes claimed and sort through which are real and which are not – and why. We will then apply those principles to the issues. As part of this, we must also understand the trends in thought that work against freedom. We will dwell on economic freedom, without which, we will ask, can individuals or society be considered free? Civicwiki’s work will answer that and other questions.