According to libertarian philosophy, liberty is the highest political virtue. Libertarians from all walks of life are engaged in a heroic effort to preserve our liberty from encroachments on many fronts. This essay will attempt to explore the fundamental meaning of liberty and why it is so vital to human happiness that liberty be preserved.

I would like to start by suggesting that there are two aspects of liberty, an external aspect and an internal aspect. First, let us look at the external aspect.

This is the most widely understood aspect and the one that most of liberty's champions spend their time defending. One is said to be free externally when one is not restrained by external forces.

This type of liberty we share with animals. A Lion is said to be free when it is not in a cage. In human society, the primary threat to our external liberty is government. The reason for this is that government is the only sector of our society that is predicated on the legitimate use of force. The realization that government is based on the use of force is what prompts liberty's champions to fight for a government that is strictly limited in its functions. From here on in, I will refer to external liberty as it relates to a people and their government as "Political Liberty".

There is a second kind of liberty that sometimes is ignored by liberty's champions. This is internal liberty. Philosophically, this notion is known as "Free Will". One is said to posses internal liberty when one is free from being controlled by ones own passions or inner impulses. This type of liberty is intricately related to ones capacity for self control and self government. It is internal liberty that distinguishes us from animals and the rest of nature. Animals are largely creatures of instinct with no capacity to shape their own destiny. Humans have the God given capacity to gain control over their inner passions that therefor over the course of their own destiny. From here on in, I will refer to this type of liberty as "Moral Liberty".

Throughout human history, moral codes have been followed as a way to gain moral liberty. The main source of our moral codes is Religion. History has shown time and time again that once a people have lost their moral liberty, they are no longer capable of sustaining their political liberty.

Although the institutions on religion have often been in conflict with the ideal of liberty, religion and morality themselves are indispensable pillars of liberty. In particular, the Judeo-Christian tradition has been the most important champion of the notion of free will and moral liberty.

This brings us to the question of why liberty is so important?

In the Declaration of Independence, our founders stated that we are endowed by our creator with the right to PURSUE happiness. Notice that they did not say that we have the right to happiness itself, or that happiness should be provided for us. They had a very unique insight into human nature and realized that happiness could not be obtained apart from being pursued. There is something about human nature which requires that we engage in a struggle with life's obstacles and emerge victorious in order to obtain happiness. Why does a mountain climber climb a mountain? It represents a challenge to overcome.

We can not experience the "Thrill of Victory" if we are shielded from the "Agony of Defeat".

Religion is the ultimate example of this quest. Finite, temporal human beings try to respond to the call of an infinite, transcendent God. In doing so we experience countless obstacles that can only be overcome by faith. In order to embark upon this quest, we must be free morally and politically.

Today both our moral and political liberty are under assault. The constant growth of government is an obvious threat to our political liberty, but it is a threat to our moral liberty as well….. How is this so? ….

Every expansion of government power is, at heart, a moral issue….

When the statist pass gun laws in response to crime, they do so on the explicit premise that we do not have the moral self control to posses fire arms without killing people. Instead of insisting on self control, they insist on gun control.

When the statist raise taxes they do so on the premise that we are incapable of spending our own money in such a way that will serve the public good.

When the statist pass burdensome environmental regulations that violate property rights, they do so on the premise that the private landowner is incapable on managing his own land without destroying the environment.

Finally, when the state creates more programs for education and welfare, they do so with two explicit premises. First that those in need are too lazy and incompetent to help themselves without the state playing the role of "Big Mama". Second, that those who are in a position to help others such as families and members of the local community are too selfish to help those who can not help themselves without state intervention. This is a subtle assault on the moral self confidence of a people. Without moral self confidence there can be no self government, and with no self government there can be no liberty, political or otherwise.

Another subtle way in which our moral liberty is under assault is the modern reappearance of the ancient notion of determinism. A long time ago, Jewish Prophets and later Christian thinkers refuted this ancient Pagan notion. Today it has become fashionable to assert that behavior such as crime is either genetically determined or totally a result of our socio-economic environment. Intelligence is seen as mostly something that is genetically inherited. Success is portrayed largely as a result of luck or being born into a favorable socio-economic climate. The whole notion that humans have free will and can, to some extent, control their destinies is being lost as the Judeo-Christian influence weakens in our culture.

In the long run, the undermining of the notion of human free will is the most dire threat to liberty. It is the philosophical notion of free will that gave birth to the notion of liberty itself. In a culture that no longer values this notion, liberty is not likely to survive long.

Thanks to http://www.libertywon.com for presenting the foregoing article.