Lynx Defense

Rose Wilder Lane -- She helped discover freedom

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  • TrailDust

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    Oct 29, 2009
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    Kalifornication
    Excerpted from the Orange Country Register:


    Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder), among America's most ardent proponents of liberty, was born Dec. 5, 1886. In particular, her "The Discovery of Freedom" (1943), among the 20th century's top 100 nonfiction books in a Modern Library readers' poll, was a seminal work. To commemorate this journalist, novelist and political theorists, read some of her insights from that work:

    •"Every human being, by his nature, is free."

    •"Government ... is evil because it is a use of force. ... It is necessary because ... a few men stupidly use force to injure others, and nothing but force will stop them."

    •"Government does not produce. ... To get butter, they must use guns; they have nothing else."

    •"The need for government is the need for force; where force is unnecessary; there is no need for government."

    •"[A]ll moral and spiritual values of human life are in the individual."

    •"Freedom is not a permission granted by any Authority. ... Liberty is inalienable."

    •"[H]ow absurd it is to believe that a Government can give anyone liberty."

    "All men are...equally endowed with inalienable liberty. Therefore it is the men in Government who can do nothing without permission from the individuals whom they govern."

    •"The 'Bill of Rights' ... is a statement of the uses of force which American citizens do not permit to men in American Government. ... If Americans ever forget that American Government is not permitted to restrain or coerce any peaceful individual. ... if Americans ever regard their use of their natural liberty as granted to them by the men in Washington or in the capitols of the States, then this ... attempt to establish the exercise of human rights on Earth is ended."

    •"Legally restricting Government's action to its smallest possible minimum reduces (to the smallest possible minimum) the use of force in human affairs, and thus permits the great majority of individuals to speak and act with the greatest possible freedom. Precisely by restricting Government, American constitutional law permits Americans to act more freely than any other people on Earth."

    •"[T]he best conditions for human life are those that least interfere with any individual's exercise of his natural freedom. He can act most freely when no other man uses force to prevent his acting. ... Government is necessary to stop criminals. But any use of force by men upon men is evil. ... Therefore, the best conditions are those in which Government is restricted to the smallest possible minimum; and further progress toward greater use of freedom is in further reducing and restricting Government."

    •"[T]he more Americans believe that Government is a controlling authority, the more this Government is compelled to use force to hinder and restrict the exercise of natural individual freedom."

    •"Human energy... works effectively only to the extent that Government is weak, so that individuals are least prevented from acting freely. ... All history shows this fact."

    In "The Discovery of Freedom," Rose Wilder Lane developed the inseparable connection between life and liberty and the importance of individuals understanding the implications of their freedom. Along with "Give Me Liberty," it had a tremendous influence in advancing that cause. Cato Institute founder Ed Crane said "It must be read by anyone who is seriously interested in the heritage of liberty." But even more than being read, it needs to be acted upon. After all, as Lane said:

    "In the human world there is nothing but individual persons, born free. ... It's a tough job to be free. But 6,000 years of trying to escape from freedom were tougher."


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