Sunday, February 11, 2007

On Mutual Liberty

On Mutual Liberty: And hence, I ponder, what is meant by the term mutual liberty? It would appear on the surface that mutual liberty goes hand-in-hand with republican ideals. Mutual liberty is when every individual in a community has the opportunity to take part in its civic activities. Another way to look at the concept of mutual liberty is by accounting for the collective free-wills of every rational being in a community. But can mutual liberty occur in reality? Well, the most proper occasion for mutual liberty is in a community governed by the consent of the governed, i.e., a republic. And it is only in a republic where members of all political factions can participate. It has been said that a republic is the form of government which divides people least. This statement pertains greatly to mutual liberty. Unlike positive and negative liberty, mutual liberty encompasses all citizens. It makes no distinction between political preference and social status. Mutual liberty pervades all sectors of society, from the homeless man on the street to the premier of the state. It is the process through which a general sense of morality gets exerted on the widest range of people in any given communal setting.

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