Thoughts on Liberty for Youth
As I have said many times before (from my reading of human history), the development of our species for the past five millennia has been all about the transition from patriarchal institutions based on the rule of strength to more partnership ones based on the rule of law. This transition involves more people becoming stakeholders with the liberty to chart their own course, check the power of their leaders, and contribute their two cents to the growing collective wisdom that has brought us such breakthroughs as the 2008 election of Barak Obama as President of the United States.For me, a logical step still ahead of us in this progression is conferring more liberty upon our young people so they can be greater stakeholders in their own development, prior to their reaching adulthood.
These thoughts about the importance of liberty were triggered by my partner Sally posing a rhetorical question the other day. It was the starting point for the typical kind of philosophical conversation we often have around our kitchen table at dinnertime. I recall many such discussions with our two kids present and contributing, but now that the nest is empty, most these days include just Sally and me.
Sally’s question was how the American colonies were blessed with such a brain-trust of individuals, who helped found a country on such egalitarian principles (as far as they went) and enshrine those principles in a well written constitution and its initial amendments (The Bill of Rights).
My initial thought was that the resources, strength of will, and ingenuity it took to uproot oneself from ones homeland and make the perilous journey to a new land tended to select people with broad vision and practica
