{"id":7829,"date":"2010-01-14T18:18:35","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T00:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oooorgle.com\/wordpress\/?p=7829"},"modified":"2017-01-14T08:11:16","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T15:11:16","slug":"freedom-by-permission-is-not-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/freedom-by-permission-is-not-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom by Permission Is Not Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fff.org\/blog\/jghblog2010-01-14.asp\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/images\/HappyToBeEnslaved.png\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"5\" align=\"left\" \/>FFF.org<\/a> | A statement by a Chinese woman in response to the Chinese government\u2019s censorship of Google reveals the statist mindset perfectly, both in China and here in the United States. Here is what she said: \u201cThe government should give people the right to see what they want online.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Do you see the problem with that woman\u2019s mindset? She looks upon rights as grants from the government, things that can be given and taken away and, thus, controlled and regulated.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the economic situation in China. Things are booming. Prosperity is soaring. The standard of living is skyrocketing. Lots of people are getting wealthy.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the reason for all this economic vibrancy? The government has reduced the amount of controls it previously exercised on people\u2019s economic activity. Less regulations. Lower taxes. Reduced import and export restrictions. More private ownership.<\/p>\n<p>Does this mean that the Chinese people are now free, in the economic sense of that term? Of course not. After all, what the Chinese government gives, the Chinese government can take away.<\/p>\n<p>The point is this: the Chinese government is permitting people to have greater economic \u201cfreedom.\u201d But the operative word is \u201cpermitting.\u201d When someone is permitting someone else to have \u201cfreedom,\u201d then the person really isn\u2019t free at all.<\/p>\n<p>Assume, for example, that the owner of a slave in the Old South permitted his slave to live off the plantation and live his life the way he chose, but on the condition that the plantation owner could recall the slave to the plantation whenever he wanted. The slave moves away and for the next 10 years raises a family and owns and operates his own business.<\/p>\n<p>Would the slave be free? Of course not. His \u201cfreedom\u201d to live his life the way he chose wouldn\u2019t be freedom at all. He would remain a slave, albeit one who would be permitted to live a less restrictive, less controlled life than before. His \u201cfreedom\u201d could be revoked at any time.<\/p>\n<p>What that Chinese woman misses \u2014 indeed, what American statists miss \u2014 is that rights are fundamental and inherent. They are endowed in people by God and nature. As such, they preexist government. Therefore, the notion that government can legitimately give and take away and control and regulate people\u2019s rights is ludicrous on its face. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fff.org\/blog\/jghblog2010-01-14.asp\" target=\"_blank\">Read Entire Article<\/a><\/p>\n<p>By Jacob G. Hornberger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FFF.org | A statement by a Chinese woman in response to the Chinese government\u2019s censorship of Google reveals the statist mindset perfectly, both in China and here in the United States. Here is what she said: \u201cThe government should give people the right to see what they want online.\u201d Do you see the problem with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[130],"class_list":["post-7829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-voluntary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oooorgle.com\/BeyondTheCorral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}