Scott, I was sorry to hear that any “libertarians” would support the government’s quarantine of anyone, no matter what the reason, and then that some of LRC’s readers disagreed with your defense of freedom. Oh, the faith that even Leviathan’s skeptics put in the beast’s abilities! As if bureaucrats and politicians who thieve and murder suddenly turn righteous and wise when “protecting” us from those who are ill.
I explored the history and implications of government’s quarantining us serfs after the DHS initiated a worldwide manhunt for Andrew Speaker in 2007. You may remember that he had supposedly contracted TB, the boogeyman du jour then, and was allegedly infecting everyone within spitting distance. Sadly, Americans who cheered the DHS’s persecution of poor Mr. Speaker prompted me to compare them to “tribesmen throwing virgins into volcanoes” because they “assume[d] that sacrificing one unlucky person’s rights will preserve their lives.” If you consider yourself a friend of freedom but endorse the State’s “rescuing” us from contagion, I hope you’ll read the piece and realize that in this area as in any other, government cannot and does not protect us. Rather, it will use this “crisis” to prey on us, as always.
11:51 am on October 8, 2014
