Freedom of Association

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Mises Daily:

Freedom of Association

 

Mises Daily:Wednesday, July 18, 2012 by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.

 

 

 

[Day 23 of Robert Wenzel's 30-day reading list that will lead you to become a knowledgeable libertarian, this article originally ran June 03, 2010.]

 

 

It seems incredible that in the last days, a fundamental right of the whole of humanity, the freedom of association, has been denounced by the New York Times and all major opinion sources, even as a national political figure was reluctant to defend his own statements in favor of the idea, and then distanced himself from the notion. Has such a fundamental principle of liberty become unsayable?

Or perhaps it is not so incredible. An overweening government, in an age of despotism such as ours, must deny such a fundamental right simply because it is one of those core issues that speaks to who is in charge: the state or individuals.

We live in antiliberal times, when individual choice is highly suspect. The driving legislative ethos is toward making all actions required or forbidden, with less and less room for human volition. Simply put, we no longer trust the idea of freedom. We can't even imagine how it would work. What a distance we have traveled from the Age of Reason to our own times.

Referencing the great controversy about the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Karen De Coster put the issue to rest by turning Rachel Maddow's question on its head. She demanded to know whether a white businessman has the right to refuse service to a black man. Karen asked, does a black businessman have the right to refuse service to a Klan member?

I don't think anyone would dispute that right. How

http://mises.org/daily/4465/Freedom-of-Association