Freedom Is Freedom To Work

What is freedom for? Why do we need freedom?

It’s not freedom to marry your same-sex “partner,” it’s not freedom to use recreational drugs, it’s not freedom to make or use pornography, it’s not freedom to have sex with anyone, anytime, anyplace. No government has a right to prevent people from having any kind of partner they choose, from putting anything they like into their body, or making, selling and using any kind of pictures or literature they like or from having “sex” however they choose, or even aborting their babies.

If, tomorrow, all of these should suddenly be allowed without restriction, not one decent individual of integrity would be one bit more free. None of these things have anything to do with why human beings must be free.

Why Freedom?

Make no mistake, freedom is a requirement of life, an absolute requirement for the success and happiness of every individual�a requirement of man’s very nature as much as food, water, and shelter are requirements of his physical nature.

“Since man’s mind is his basic tool of survival, his means of gaining knowledge to guide his actions��the basic condition he requires is the freedom to think and to act according to his rational judgment.” [Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal, “The Nature of Government”]

Along with rationality and pride, Ayn Rand name productiveness as one of the three cardinal virtues.

“The virtue of Productiveness is the recognition of the fact that productive work is the process by which man’s mind sustains his life� Productive work is the road of man’s unlimited achievement and calls upon the highest attributes of his character: his creative ability, his ambitiousness, his self-assertiveness� “Productive work” does not mean the unfocused performance of the motions of some job. It means the consciously chosen pursuit of a productive career, in any line of rational endeavor, great or modest, on any level of ability. It is not the degree of a man’s ability nor the scale of his work that is ethically relevant here, but the fullest and most purposeful use of his mind.” [The Virtue of Selfishness, “1. The Objectivist Ethics”]

This is the only purpose of freedom and the only reason man needs it�his very existence and all that he values must be created and produced by his own effort directed by his own choices. The purpose of his life is that creative effort, his work, which identifies both what he is and his value as a human being.

“Degrees of ability vary, but the basic principle remains the same: the degree of a man’s independence, initiative and personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a man.” [For the New Intellectual� The Fountainhead, “The Soul Of An Individualist”]

For the independent individualist, work is not only the means to survival and the only moral means to acquiring and achieving that which makes life worth living, his work, what he produces and accomplishes by his own effort is the source of his sense of self-worth, and ultimately his reason for living.

Hedonism or Objective Values

The difference between the emphasis of libertarians and the independent individualist about the nature and reason for freedom is the difference between hedonism and objective values. Freedom to do whatever one likes, without regard to why they like it, is not truly freedom. That kind of freedom is not possible, because it ignores both what is required for a human being to live happily and successfully in this world, that is, moral principles, and therefore disregards the fact that no one can do whatever they like if what they like is not determined by objective reason, but mere desire, or passion, or whim. That kind of “freedom” is not free and leads always to one’s enslavement to whatever irrational desires and passions they have surrendered to.

I’ve already addressed the disaster of the hedonistic view of freedom in my article, “My Friend, Ayn Rand,“under the “Hedonism” and “Subjectivism” sections.

The independent individualist view of freedom, the objective rational view, is based on the moral requirement of human nature to produce, to achieve by one’s own effort, and become by one’s own rational choice the best one can possibly be as a human being�that is, to work.

“� material production is the result of and comes from the highest and noblest aspect of man, from his creative mind, from his independent rational judgment�which is his highest attribute and the sole base of his morality.

“To exercise one’s own independent rational judgment is the essence of man’s morality, his highest action, his sole moral commandment that embraces all his virtues. Material production comes from that�it requires the noblest moral action (independent thought) as it source. It is the result of the highest morality, of the noblest courage, of the best within man.” [The Journals of Ayn Rand, “13 - Notes While Writing: 1947-1952”]