Let’s Define FREEDOM

When someone shouts “freedom” as a protest rally, what does he or she actually mean?

In recent times, we have seen increasing media coverage of individuals and activist groups whose members attend a variety of public protest rallies. The word “freedom” is often shouted or chanted by participants. This clearly indicates that at least some of those in attendance see themselves as victims of some type of oppression.

 I have often wondered what each person is thinking when he or she cries out for “freedom”. After all, every human being possesses a unique life lens which informs his or her every waking moment as life progresses. When someone at a rally demands “freedom”, it’s a protest against some (often) unseen oppressor. That person’s entire lifetime of past personal experiences and circumstances has coalesced momentarily into a state of mind that compels him or her to cry out for “freedom”.

“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.” ― Karl Marx

Marx popularized the idea of ‘oppressed’ and ‘oppressor’ long ago. It has served as the normative raison d’être of many activist groups for generations.  Today, we know the “oppressed” by their form of victimhood and there are many groups in society who consider themselves “victims” of one oppressor or another. Critical race theory, social justice, gay rights, tax freedom advocates, climate change, pro-choice vs pro-life, informed consent for medical treatments, travel rights under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and examples of the many groups who express their victimology by perceived and/or real injustices.

So, let’s summarize. In the eye of each beholder, his or her understanding of “freedom” can be tinged with any number of very personal variables: financial, social, religious, evidence of perceived truth (scientific, heuristic or anecdotal), personal expression, association, mobility, emotional, ethical, moral, mobility, and more.

Victims are everywhere.

Yes, most rallies are clearly organized for a defined purpose and attendees participate accordingly. However, if all rallies in a given country over any given year were to be analyzed and categorized, the range of causes they profess would be very broad indeed. If you add to these rallies the posts of every blogger and social media contributor who expresses his or her form of victimhood and cry for “freedom”, then every victim group across the board would surely be represented. It seems that everyone is oppressed by someone at various stages of their life.

Politicians depend on surveys as well as special interest groups.

The major political parties have come to believe that a well-placed survey is one of the best ways to test the shifting winds of public sentiment concerning who is oppressing whom. Those government-subsidized parties can afford to pay for these tools but their accuracy is questionable.

Serving the public to everyone’s satisfaction is an intractable problem for which no effective political solution exists. Society has become increasingly fragmented into groups of victimhood that are popularly designated “special interest group”. The most influential of these are the targets of every political upon which to shower attention with to goal to ‘farm’ as many votes as possible. Public sector unions are by far the biggest and most influential groups with the best track record of results for their communities.

Unfortunately, the electoral “majority” is never a statistical majority. What remains is a system that awards lawmaking power to the politicians who are best able to secure the votes of the “bully majority” (always under the 50% statistical majority). Furthermore, to the extent that any special interest group possess access to resources that can be organized to sway voting results, it’s priorities will be reflected in future policy priorities of the Party it supported.

Freedom Of Choice is genuine freedom.

The above statement is especially true when choosers are adequately informed of a full range of options. “Information is power” is an expression that predates the Internet and does reflect the fact that information comes from many sources that carry with them various levels of bias and trustworthiness. With so many choices, the onus now on every individual to assess and equaled all information sources as a critical thinker and to hold some degree of skepticism for every source.

Not perfect, but the best we have …

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been part the Canadian Constitution since 1982. It’s not without shortcomings, but it’s provisions should be honoured and respected by every citizen regardless of his or her position in society - no exceptions! No one can be except from adhering to the Charter, especially our elected representatives right up to and including the Prime Minister of Canada and the Premier of every province.

I belong to a victim group too.

As a longtime Libertarian who has advocated for Less Government, I have been greatly disappointed by those of my fellow citizens who have continually elected politicians that promote only Bigger Government policies. This has cost me and my family personally. I have been forced to remit excessively high taxes to pay for programs that I don’t want or for those which I don’t approve.

Inflation comes from Big Government policies …

I also know for certain the cause of the current rise in the cost of living. This understanding comes from my longtime study of Economics and from my 8 years of working experience as a Director in International Consulting company. I was a key member of a systems integration team that implemented large ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning software template) projects to increase the productivity of the manufacture and supply chain processes in over 110 automotive parts manufacturing plants located in Brazil, Mexico, the USA, Canada and France. From this knowledge, it is very clear to me that the current rise in the cost of living is almost entirely attributed to government policies - both monetary and regulatory. Excessive levels of taxation and punishing burdens of regulations have been imposed on all manufacturing and supply chains businesses. This means that those companies that participate in the string of business processes which culminate in final products and/services for consumer all face overhead costs that are passed on to the consumer as higher prices. A very simple example of this is, of course, the addition of excise and carbon taxes to the price of gasoline at the pump.

Let the competition begin

Competition in “public services” sector is good idea. It’s time to eliminate public sector monopolies forever.

In concept, this can be achieved by electing politicians who are 100% committed to repealing every piece of existing legislation that currently exists to award our governments’ exclusive and/or dominant control over sectors such as Education and Health Care. When this step is done, entrepreneurial, non-government service providers will enter the market to fill the gaps in service that government providers are unable or unwilling to address. Every citizen must then be allowed the freedom to choose whether to patronize the government service provider or a non-government service provider and pay accordingly. If citizens choose the latter option, they will be exempted from paying taxes towards the operating costs of the former.

When everyone is Free to Choose between government and non-government service providers, the resulting competition will serve everyone better than under today’s monopoly regimes. In markets that offer an unbiased and minimally-regulated field of competition, every citizen will benefit in much the same way as they do now by the many choices offered for grocery shopping or car buying.

In time, even the government service providers will need to adapt their “business models” to better serve their patrons. They will be compelled by consumer choice pressures to adapt in order to compete successfully. Their managers and employees will no longer be able to depend on legislative force to ‘game’ the market to their advantage.

As a Libertarian, I endorse Non-Government Options

I believe that competition is the only way that we Canadians will truly have Freedom Of (Informed) Choice in all our affairs.