| In this context, what is meant is freedom from forcible, coerced obediance. Nobody holds a gun to my head and forces me to be a Catholic, or a libertarian, or a university student. I agree to follow the rules and precepts of those institutions because I believe it to be in my best interests to do so; I can stop obeying those rules, at any time, without being shot or locked up for it. However, the State arbitrarily imposes rules which it then enforces with violence ( or the threat thereof ). This is, to my mind, totally unacceptable. |