Either freedom exists, or control does.  There is no middle ground.  No balance.  No coexistence.  They claim a little control is necessary, a safeguard against chaos.  That’s the lie.  Freedom doesn’t fail—only people do.  If people make mistakes, they are responsible for them.  Imposing control doesn’t fix mistakes, it multiplies them.  A small amount of control can never remain small.  It spirals, expands, consumes.

Freedom is not an abstraction or a privilege granted by rulers.  It is the natural state of man.  It requires no justification, no permission.  Freedom is the ability to act according to one’s own judgment, to take risks, to bear responsibility, to create, to trade, to speak, to live without interference.  It is messy, unpredictable, and sometimes difficult—but it is the only condition where true progress, true morality, and true dignity can exist.

They invent words to hide contradictions.  They talk of “responsible freedom,” “managed liberty,” “common good.” These phrases are empty.  You either own yourself or you don’t.  They’ll twist definitions, redefine terms, smother meaning in complexity. It’s all a distraction.  Their goal is to make you doubt the obvious.  To make you question whether you should be free at all.

Those who wield these words are manipulators.  Some are deceived, but many know exactly what they’re doing.  They understand that control requires force.  They justify it.  They rationalize.  They tell themselves they are the good guys.  It makes no difference what they believe.  To advocate control is to advocate domination. It is to embrace evil.  They do embrace it.  They simply refuse to say so out loud.

They want you to believe their control is benevolent.  That their rule is wise.  That without them, life would be unbearable. They see themselves as the architects of order, the enlightened few who must guide the many.  Their ideas always require force.  Always demand obedience.  Always punish defiance.  They may dress it up in fancy rhetoric, but at its core, it’s nothing more than power.

Freedom, on the other hand, does not require force.  It does not demand obedience.  It does not punish, because it does not command.  It allows.  It enables.  It invites.  Freedom does not mean perfection, nor does it guarantee fairness—but it does ensure choice.  Choice is the foundation of all human achievement. It is what separates a life worth living from mere existence under rule.

It is always this way.  Either freedom or control.  They will insist control is harmless, even good—if only the right people wield it.  This is why they elevate the state above all else.  To them, the state is God.  It can take, command, destroy, and still be righteous.  Its violence is never violence.  Its oppression is never oppression.  It breaks as many eggs as it wants and calls it justice, but people aren’t eggs.

Freedom requires no rulers.  No masters.  No permissions. It stands on its own, and it is worth everything.

Reference

Ludwig von Mises; Human Action