Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
The Liberty 100 is the Western Standard's list of the 100 Canadian friends of liberty who have made significant contributions to individual liberty (both personal and economic) in 2008 (Top 10, Top 25, Top 50, Top 75, Top 100). The list was selected by our publisher, Matthew Johnston, who has intimate and wide-ranging knowledge of, and familiarity with, the Canadian liberty movement.
Given that this is the first installation of an annual list, Matthew decided to also include those liberty activists whose lifetime contribution to the liberty movement deserved recognition and credit, regardless of their activities in 2008 alone.
The most controversial selection on the list appears to be that of Cannabis Culture publisher and Western Standard columnist Marc Emery. In the comment sections of the list, several people complained that Emery shouldn't be on the list. Kathy Shaidle (65 on the list) expressed, uhm, grumpiness at the selection. And in emails that both Matthew and I have received, people were unhappy at the inclusion of Emery.
Maybe these responses are a result of some confusion. The list is reserved for those who are struggling for individual liberty, in a political context. Since this is the goal, it is hardly surprising that the list features libertarians more than it features conservatives, liberals, or adherents of other political philosophies.
Libertarianism, after all, is synonymous with the struggle for greater individual liberty in personal and economic matters against the intrusive power of the state.
Conservatives, generally and according to the stereotype, want to increase economic liberty, while maintaining government control over personal matters. That is, conservatives are pro-liberty when it comes to economic matters, but anti-liberty when it comes to personal, cultural, or social matters.
The reverse, meanwhile, is true, generally and according to the stereotype, of liberals -- more personal, social, and cultural liberty, and opposition to economic liberty.
For this reason, some call libertarianism an amalgam of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism. But the standard really should be liberty, and we should call fiscal conservatives economic libertarians, and social liberals something like civil libertarians. It's political liberty that is at stake when it comes to these labels, so why not make liberty the noun to be modified?
So given that the list is a liberty list, I'm having trouble identifying why anyone would be opposed to the inclusion of Marc Emery who, without any doubt, is the most significant advocate of individual liberty when it comes to marijuana. It is a violation of individual liberty to have the state dictate to us what we can and cannot put into our own bodies, just as surely as it is a violation of individual liberty to have the state dictate to us what we can and cannot read or say.
We might not want people to read or say certain things, and we might not want people to smoke, eat, or inject something or other, but it really is a violation of their individual liberty for us to make use of the coercive power of the state to enact our vision of how people should live their lives. Ensuring that people are nice, kind, decent and virtuous, that they not harm themselves, that they exercise regularly, that they read Shakespeare and avoid Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five or the writings of Oscar Wilde, that they eat their vegetables and not munch on hash brownies (or pot brownies, or whatever they're called -- I mean brownies with a bunch of marijuana in them), and so on, is, according to the individual liberty, or libertarian, perspective, the proper function of parents (in properly rearing their children), in civil, voluntary institutions like the church (in instilling certain virtues, and providing a community for fellowship and fellow aid), in voluntary market responses (like boycotts and public relations campaigns to make less profitable those businesses we disapprove of), and so on. It is decidedly not consistent with individual liberty to have agents of the state show up to shut up those people whose writings we don't like, to impose a daily eating and exercise regimen, or to imprison those adults who decide to smoke pot or sell it to consenting others.
If you think Emery should be imprisoned for selling marijuana seeds, if you think people who smoke pot should be jailed, then you are an opponent of individual liberty when it comes to marijuana. That's too bad, as far as I'm concerned, but so be it. Just don't call yourself an advocate of liberty when it comes to pot. Call yourself what you are -- an advocate of the state dictating to adults what they can and cannot smoke.
Some of the more clever advocates of state intrusion insist that they want the state to intrude for the sake of greater autonomy. The more nuanced advocates of jailing pot smokers claim that greater autonomy in this sense means greater liberty. After all, doing drugs alters your mood, your appetite, and alters your preferences and desires not through rational deliberation and rational endorsement, but through chemical means. And, at least when it comes to illicit drugs, many think this undermines our ability to create and act on plans and projects of our own choosing. Put differently, we might no longer identify with our plans and projects because of our use of certain drugs.
Of course, I don't believe that marijuana is fairly lumped in with heroin or cocaine when it comes to this position. Empirical literature and studies appear to demonstrate that marijuana does not have the effects that opponents claim it does, that it is not a gateway drug, that it does not diminish autonomy to anything like the levels that would warrant state action if we thought that undermining our own autonomy was both something to be opposed and something that it is right for the state to interfere with. (That both are necessary is crucial and often overlooked. I call it the "ought-state gap." We need to be clear that advocates of state action need to show not only that something is bad and ought to be opposed, they also have the burden of demonstrating that the state is the right kind of institution to effectively oppose whatever we don't like. Everyone agrees that, say, you breaking a promise to come see a movie with me on Tuesday for no good reason is wrong, but we hardly think that I should therefore call my local police department. We also agree that adultery is wrong, but very few think this warrants state action.)
More to the point, the diminution of autonomy through drug use is, while worrisome, not a matter of specifically political liberty. Political liberty is the freedom we have as against the state. It is the room we have to mind our own affairs without the intrusion of state actors. It is not the freedom we have simpliciter, or the effective autonomy we have in our daily lives.
There are, obviously, nuances that I'm not covering. I'm not, for example, explaining why children should be treated differently from adults, or giving an account of "harm to others" that explains the difference between the kinds of harms (theft, violence, etc.) that warrant state interference consistent with political liberty, and the kinds of harms (you making me unhappy and sad at your use of heroin, which most certainly counts as a "harm") that do not. So there is still much left to be said.
Nevertheless, it should at least be, I hope, clear why Emery deserves to be on this list, and why he deserves to be near the top of it. No one has done more for individual liberty when it comes to marijuana. No one. And not just in Canada, but in the world. Marc Emery just is the world's most prominent, most tireless, and most significant activist in defense of the freedom of adults to enjoy marijuana as they'd like, without the state crashing through their doors, destroying their lives, tearing apart their families, and otherwise doing what really is utterly despicable and revolting.
While we might not want people to do drugs, the state-run war on drugs is, really, a war on individual liberty. Since Emery is vociferous in his opposition to it, he is a defender of individual liberty. That's why he's made the Western Standard's Liberty 100 list this year in such a prominent position. And that's why he'll probably continue to be on it year after year after year. And a good thing too.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Western Standard
Copyright: 2008 Western Standard
Contact: Western Standard
Website: Western Standard
Given that this is the first installation of an annual list, Matthew decided to also include those liberty activists whose lifetime contribution to the liberty movement deserved recognition and credit, regardless of their activities in 2008 alone.
The most controversial selection on the list appears to be that of Cannabis Culture publisher and Western Standard columnist Marc Emery. In the comment sections of the list, several people complained that Emery shouldn't be on the list. Kathy Shaidle (65 on the list) expressed, uhm, grumpiness at the selection. And in emails that both Matthew and I have received, people were unhappy at the inclusion of Emery.
Maybe these responses are a result of some confusion. The list is reserved for those who are struggling for individual liberty, in a political context. Since this is the goal, it is hardly surprising that the list features libertarians more than it features conservatives, liberals, or adherents of other political philosophies.
Libertarianism, after all, is synonymous with the struggle for greater individual liberty in personal and economic matters against the intrusive power of the state.
Conservatives, generally and according to the stereotype, want to increase economic liberty, while maintaining government control over personal matters. That is, conservatives are pro-liberty when it comes to economic matters, but anti-liberty when it comes to personal, cultural, or social matters.
The reverse, meanwhile, is true, generally and according to the stereotype, of liberals -- more personal, social, and cultural liberty, and opposition to economic liberty.
For this reason, some call libertarianism an amalgam of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism. But the standard really should be liberty, and we should call fiscal conservatives economic libertarians, and social liberals something like civil libertarians. It's political liberty that is at stake when it comes to these labels, so why not make liberty the noun to be modified?
So given that the list is a liberty list, I'm having trouble identifying why anyone would be opposed to the inclusion of Marc Emery who, without any doubt, is the most significant advocate of individual liberty when it comes to marijuana. It is a violation of individual liberty to have the state dictate to us what we can and cannot put into our own bodies, just as surely as it is a violation of individual liberty to have the state dictate to us what we can and cannot read or say.
We might not want people to read or say certain things, and we might not want people to smoke, eat, or inject something or other, but it really is a violation of their individual liberty for us to make use of the coercive power of the state to enact our vision of how people should live their lives. Ensuring that people are nice, kind, decent and virtuous, that they not harm themselves, that they exercise regularly, that they read Shakespeare and avoid Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five or the writings of Oscar Wilde, that they eat their vegetables and not munch on hash brownies (or pot brownies, or whatever they're called -- I mean brownies with a bunch of marijuana in them), and so on, is, according to the individual liberty, or libertarian, perspective, the proper function of parents (in properly rearing their children), in civil, voluntary institutions like the church (in instilling certain virtues, and providing a community for fellowship and fellow aid), in voluntary market responses (like boycotts and public relations campaigns to make less profitable those businesses we disapprove of), and so on. It is decidedly not consistent with individual liberty to have agents of the state show up to shut up those people whose writings we don't like, to impose a daily eating and exercise regimen, or to imprison those adults who decide to smoke pot or sell it to consenting others.
If you think Emery should be imprisoned for selling marijuana seeds, if you think people who smoke pot should be jailed, then you are an opponent of individual liberty when it comes to marijuana. That's too bad, as far as I'm concerned, but so be it. Just don't call yourself an advocate of liberty when it comes to pot. Call yourself what you are -- an advocate of the state dictating to adults what they can and cannot smoke.
Some of the more clever advocates of state intrusion insist that they want the state to intrude for the sake of greater autonomy. The more nuanced advocates of jailing pot smokers claim that greater autonomy in this sense means greater liberty. After all, doing drugs alters your mood, your appetite, and alters your preferences and desires not through rational deliberation and rational endorsement, but through chemical means. And, at least when it comes to illicit drugs, many think this undermines our ability to create and act on plans and projects of our own choosing. Put differently, we might no longer identify with our plans and projects because of our use of certain drugs.
Of course, I don't believe that marijuana is fairly lumped in with heroin or cocaine when it comes to this position. Empirical literature and studies appear to demonstrate that marijuana does not have the effects that opponents claim it does, that it is not a gateway drug, that it does not diminish autonomy to anything like the levels that would warrant state action if we thought that undermining our own autonomy was both something to be opposed and something that it is right for the state to interfere with. (That both are necessary is crucial and often overlooked. I call it the "ought-state gap." We need to be clear that advocates of state action need to show not only that something is bad and ought to be opposed, they also have the burden of demonstrating that the state is the right kind of institution to effectively oppose whatever we don't like. Everyone agrees that, say, you breaking a promise to come see a movie with me on Tuesday for no good reason is wrong, but we hardly think that I should therefore call my local police department. We also agree that adultery is wrong, but very few think this warrants state action.)
More to the point, the diminution of autonomy through drug use is, while worrisome, not a matter of specifically political liberty. Political liberty is the freedom we have as against the state. It is the room we have to mind our own affairs without the intrusion of state actors. It is not the freedom we have simpliciter, or the effective autonomy we have in our daily lives.
There are, obviously, nuances that I'm not covering. I'm not, for example, explaining why children should be treated differently from adults, or giving an account of "harm to others" that explains the difference between the kinds of harms (theft, violence, etc.) that warrant state interference consistent with political liberty, and the kinds of harms (you making me unhappy and sad at your use of heroin, which most certainly counts as a "harm") that do not. So there is still much left to be said.
Nevertheless, it should at least be, I hope, clear why Emery deserves to be on this list, and why he deserves to be near the top of it. No one has done more for individual liberty when it comes to marijuana. No one. And not just in Canada, but in the world. Marc Emery just is the world's most prominent, most tireless, and most significant activist in defense of the freedom of adults to enjoy marijuana as they'd like, without the state crashing through their doors, destroying their lives, tearing apart their families, and otherwise doing what really is utterly despicable and revolting.
While we might not want people to do drugs, the state-run war on drugs is, really, a war on individual liberty. Since Emery is vociferous in his opposition to it, he is a defender of individual liberty. That's why he's made the Western Standard's Liberty 100 list this year in such a prominent position. And that's why he'll probably continue to be on it year after year after year. And a good thing too.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Western Standard
Copyright: 2008 Western Standard
Contact: Western Standard
Website: Western Standard
