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May 2009 
COAT: What Freedom Really Is
Posted on Sep 19th, 2007
by 
~C4Chaos
~C4Chaos
"Freedom granted only where it can be known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial would not be freedom. If we know how freedom would be used, the case for it would largely disappear. We could then achieve the same result by telling people to do what freedom would enable them to do. But we shall never get the benefits of freedom, never obtain those unforeseeable new developments for which it provides the opportunity, if it is not granted also where the uses made of it by some do not seem desirable. It is therefore no argument against individual freedom that it is frequently abused or used for ends that are recognized as socially undesirable. Our faith in freedom rests not on demonstrable results in particular circumstances, but on the belief that it will on balance release more forces for the good than for the bad."
~ Friedrich Von Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
"If it can't be abused, it's not freedom."
~ Alan McConnell
Access: Public
