Freedom or Totalitarianism

Another blogger posted an excellent article in the Globe and Mail titled: Are we sliding into a tyranny of good intentions? The article specifically focuses on democracy in general. However, it segues into another topic as of late.

A few people I know have asked me my opinion on the striking down of certain prostitution laws in Canada. Certainly there has been a great deal of ink spilt on the subject already talking about the morals of society. I got into a very heated debate on the subject on another blog where asking people to point out specific ways that prostitution harms society resulted in me being called 'self-righteous'.

Go figure... I didn't know that asking for evidence of guilt is being self-righteous. I thought it was called due process.

I was even called a moral relativist. And yet believing something to be bad and saying it's none of my business doesn't imply any morally relative position at all. In fact, my morality is absolute as my opinion on prostitution is based on my opinion of government in general: participatory private acts are of NO business to government.

Unfortunately, society has increasingly empowered governments as our caretaker rather than our employee. It amazes me how conservatives complain of the far-left's tendency towards a "nanny-state" and then turn around and cry foul when citizens are given the freedom to choose how they live their own lives.

Prostitution -- like any other actions in the sphere of personal morality -- is in my books not a good thing. Whether by tradition or perception of human value, it is a dirty thing in my mind. And many people hold the same belief. But does that give us the moral right to say that everybody must abide by our personal morality?

Hello, Nanny State.

Instead of taking personal responsibility for our own actions and being models and teachers of moral positivity to shape the world we want, we have once again empowered the government to coerce and threaten others into our own personal spheres of morality. Just like schools that enforce an adoption of certain eating habits, just as governments enforce the adoption of non-smoking for free people in private establishments (BTW: I don't smoke), we have once again deferred personal responsibility and freedom to an every strengthened government fist.

And as one of my favorite musicians, Peter Gabriel, says, "The more we are protected, the more we're trapped within."

Once we give away our self-empowerment, it is nearly impossible to get it back. And then we become slaves to both the rules we adopt and the rules that those we oppose adopt on our behalf.

It's always best to err on the side of personal freedom than totalitarianism.