208 Liberty vs. Society

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">American-defined liberty, personal liberty, has only been a concept since The Enlightenment. Before that people were obligated to their church & to their king. Liberty was the revolutionally idea that people are their own sovereign, obligated to no one except by agreement; as allies rather than subjects, parishioners or kin. Since liberty was a new ideology when the nation was founded, all of its ramifications were not yet clear. Clan duties & religious dogma dissolved. All of those once community-based services, the essence of society, like charity, education & militias, were subsumed by centralized government. It turns out that maximum individualism, meaning you are beholden to no one, can only exist under the auspices of a strong State that can shield you from the control of parochial forces.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">However, there is a difference between extreme individualism and liberty. Liberty requires you to be aware of your allies so that your actions do not impose upon their liberty, and that you treat others as you would want them to treat you, with courtesy, dignity & respect. This is the difference that still allows libertyists to form societies, because we need allies and they need us, which is the foundation of our nation, and the new centralized society we live in that allows libety to flourish.</p>