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All parties, on left and right, believe in freedom. The question is whether there are ways of having too muchfreedom, or of using it in the very wrong way, so that it starts to hurt other things we care about, like prosperity, safety and happiness.
The issue comes to a head with internet pornography. The standard view is that people should be left to look at porn as much as they like, just as they should be left to buy guns, eat unhealthy foods, divorce and remarry eight times and make nothing of their talents: it’s a free country, after all.
But what is freedom? If you listen to the theologian and philosopher St Augustine, real freedom doesn’t mean the right to do anything whatsoever. It means being given access to everything that is necessary for a flourishing life – and, it follows, being protected from many of the things that ruin life.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
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