I am talking about John Stuart Mill's definition in On Liberty:
(paraphrase) "The government has no business regulating an individual's behavior if that individual's behavior causes no harm to others. Society has other tools at its disposal other than legal action to complain about an individual's conduct."
It seems that politicians and many citizens feel the need to tell people what to do here in the US. Same-sex marriage, War On Drugs, prostitution, etc. Other countries, found in recent studies, that are the happiest also have the "loosest" laws concerning individual behavior.
I always thought that America was built on a Libertarian philosophy and that, out of anyone, we should be the most liberal country. However, many people in this country buy into the "controversial" moral issues and focus on those rather than the real problems (education, health care, corrpution).
I do not understand why people feel the need to use the legal system as a battleground for these issues.
2006-07-30
17:23:14
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