Sunday, February 18, 2007

The Greatest Enemy of Liberty

Harvard Law professor Charles Fried is being kicked by both the left and right at present. That's no guarantee of correctness, but it's usually a good marker for interesting thinking. The link should whet your appetite

From a recent article about his new book in the Harvard Gazette:

"The greatest enemy of liberty has always been some vision of the good."

"Of all the ideals that compete with liberty," writes Fried, "none is as powerful or as attractive as equality"

Fried's book, Modern Liberty and the Limits of Government takes John Stuart Mill as a starting point, and discusses how liberty and equality are not natural allies, and are often in conflict.

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