Freedom isn't Free
Filed under: Russia
News was released last week that the United States has more people in prison than any other country in the world, including places like China that have far more people in them. Statistics showed that one out of every 100 Americans was in prison, according to one study.
This news should surprise nobody, and far from being evidence of weakness on America's part, it should simply be seen as conclusive proof that America is living out its creed: "Live free or die."
It's been noted that there may be a correlation between crime and involuntary hospitalization. Specifically, one can argue that Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, should have been locked up in the booby hatch long before the shooting occurred, preventing it from happening and saving lives. One might suppose that places like China have committed far more citizens to mental "hospitals" than has the United States, where elaborate protections on civil liberties make doing so more difficult. Moreover, one can suppose that America's jails could be even more packed than they are, if some of those protections were abandoned and all those who were likely guilty of crimes were actually incarcerated. And then there's the fact that anyone who relies on data of this kind as produced by countries like China may need his own form of mental treatment, and the fact that, for instance, even though Russia is presided over by a KGB authoritarian, its murder rate is far higher than America's.
The left-wing freaks, of course, will tell us about how we aren't doing enough to "understand" the "root causes" of crime, how we need to "cure" and "heal" the "disease" that is afflicting America. Barack Obama spews out rhetoric of this kind from time to time.
But let's be clear: The "disease" they are referring to is liberty. Americans are the freest people in the world, they have the fewest legal and social restrictions on their conduct (no class system like Britain, no caste system like India, no police-state regimentation like China or Russia). Therefore, it's entirely predictable that America will have the most crime and the most incarcerated criminals.
And let's not forget what else America will have: It will have an economy that bestrides the globe like a colossus. It will have, by far, the most stable political system, the oldest, of any constitutional democracy on the planet. It will have literally hoards of foreigners begging for entry to the golden door, and it will stand for the dreams of oppressed people all around the globe.
When people are free, they are free to do all, good and bad. The free society reaps the benefit of the good and pays the cost of the bad. But, more important, even if you think the balance is unfavorable, the free society recognizes the ultimate sovereignty of man as an individual, the rights we were born with, for good or ill.
You may say you'd prefer to live in a totalitarian country where people's minds are "adjusted" so that crime does not occur. If you do, you're free to live in one, the world offers many such choices. But if you are a true left-winger, then you embrace diversity as a fundamental precept, and you don't want to see the American choice taken off the table.
And if you're a right-winger, terrified by the prospect of being enslaved by totalitarian overlords like those who destroyed the USSR, you're even more sanguine about American criminality -- because you know the alternative to fearing the crimes of your neighbor is fearing the crimes of a far more powerful and dangerous governmental entity.
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