The State of Nature

The so-called state of nature is a very important concept in philosophy and political science. What is "natural" is harder to call "wrong" and what solves problems in "nature" is easier to justify as useful. I have been re-reading Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman, lately, and I had this thought about the state of nature of man:

Man is neither totally free nor totally un-free in the state of nature. In an ancient society, I may have been free to do many different things, owing to the lack of laws and enforcement, but I might not have been free to violate certain essential customs or traditions. I might have been punished to the point of exile or death for violating certain rules. In any group of people, norms or rules will evolve and develop that limit individual freedoms. In such a primitive society, some will test the rules, and others will enforce them. Sometimes the rules will change.

The push toward freedom *is* the state of nature. Our constitution enshrines this by limiting the powers of government and then making it hard to amend the document, itself. Progress in political science, ethics, and even economics, should be viewed as a move toward a system that allows more freedom. Often, limitations on freedom are necessary, such as a prohibition of my right to kill you, or your right to steal my food. If freedom-limiting tactics, like taxes or new regulations, were generally seen as "temporary," we might be better for it. Rather than making tax cuts temporary, we should make tax increases temporary. The Patriot Act should be temporary and free trade agreements should last indefinitely. Religious freedoms should be protected and relegation of a group to cult status should be temporary.

Rather than making new regulations every time an industry experiences a market failure or corruption, we should make new rules with the expectation that eventually a system will be designed which needs less additional regulations. We will never achieve a society with no market safeguards, no rules, and no intervention by government, nor would one be desirable. But, we should always try to unburden people of rules and redistributions when we can. We should, at least, remind people that freedoms should not be taken for granted, and that our society should have, as its goal, the continued emancipation of its citizenry.