Monthly Archives: November 2009

The first time I heard about Libertarianism was from a NewsRadio piece around 6 or 7 years ago. A speaker (I can’t recall his name) was addressing a group of college students about what it means to be a Libertarian. One passage in his talk stuck with me, which I will paraphrase:

Every start of the college year, thousands of college freshman, pack up their belongings and move out of their home for the first time. In many cases students have now decided, via their own free will, to move away from a comfortable home with home-cooked meals to a life near the poverty line. Why do they do this? It is the lure of freedom. The lure of making your own choices, making mistakes, living your life without your parents’ overview, to better yourself. It is freedom that makes students do this and, on the whole, become stronger, smarter and wiser about themselves and the world.

Here is another quote from a reader to a newspaper publisher explaining the reason why so many in Eastern Europe celebrated the end of communism:

My daughter’s hamster (a pet white mouse) has food, water, shelter and even medical care, and a cage full of fun curly tubes. The hamster responds by constantly trying to chew his way to freedom. I think we all understand what freedom is, and it is not a gilded cage. Continue reading →