The basic attitude in our society and tradition is that "If it's not forbidden, it's allowed."
Both liberals and conservatives hold this view. They differ on what to forbid.
There is only one reasonable criterion for defining an acceptable intrusion on individual liberty: infringement on the rights of other individuals.
It's a very simple thing, really. People should be free to do what they want, unless their exercise of their freedom intrudes on the rights of others. The burden of proof has to be on the person who claims that their rights are being infringed upon.
Of course neither right nor left likes this definition, because both want to restrain behaviour that doesn't infringe on anyone's rights, but which they happen not to like. That's why it's impossible to review these choices on the merits of the moral principle involved. The US government is not tasked with the preservation of morality or the sustenance of western civilization. It is supposed to ensure that the rights and liberties of American citizens are not infringed upon.
Of course it is possible that one group of self appointed moralists could gain sufficient power to overturn this principle and impose their own definition of morality on everyone. That's what happened in Iran, and if that happens here, we won't be a free country any more. That's why the principle of majority rule is countered by the courts, and other structures designed to prevent the tyranny of the majority from infringing upon the liberties of minorities.
Fundamentalism is always the enemy of liberty, whether its fundamentalist Christianity, fundamentalist Islam, fundamentalist environmentalism, or fundamentalism of any other sort.
Should your neighbor be permitted to do as he chooses? Only one question: does his choice infringe on your rights? If the answer is "no", it's none of your business.
We can have a free country or a moral country, but never both. If people have the freedom to choose, some will make choices we don't like. That's life. The cost of taking away freedom is greater than the cost of the decisions some will make. |
