Live and Let Live
To all my honest libertarian friends —
When you say “Live and let live, as long as it harms no others” in effect you are saying, “I will not stop my brother from playing Russian roulette, if such be his whim” and “I will not stop my sister from leaping from a tower” and “I will not stop my child from injecting deadly poison into his veins.”
This robs your brother, sister and child of human dignity. You are treating other people as mere objects, to whom you owe nothing, and from whom you are owed nothing. This is a false-to-facts association, illogical, and unconscionable.
If you would stop a man from mutilating or killing a girl, why allow a girl to mutilate or kill herself? The only answer is because you do not care so very much for her wellbeing. Her good is not a priority.
To you, she is not human, and has no human dignity. She is a piece of property, and so may be marred or destroyed by her owner — in this case, she herself owns herself — for any reason or no reason.
But this logic rests on treating the human being as an owned thing, as livestock, not as a gift.
Who said he was not his brother’s keeper? Is his character worth emulating?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
June 11, 2023 @ 2:57 pm
