ARI: Principles of a Free Society

The Ayn Rand Centre for Individual Rights, has launched a new website. The following message was sent by Edwin Thompson, an old friend, who has been interested in the various initiatives we have taken over the years in India, to promote the ideas of Ayn Rand, and build a community around it.

Principles of a Free Society

What makes a society free? What does it mean for an individual to be free—free to pursue his rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness? Just how free are we in the “home of the brave and the land of the free”? And most importantly, what must we now do to achieve the type of free society that our Founding Fathers envisioned? What did they miss that we must now fight for?

In a free society the government's role is crucial but delimited: the government possesses only those powers delegated to it and necessary for the protection of each citizen's individual rights against force and fraud. So long as men are dealing with one another voluntarily when they are trying to reach agreement or going their separate ways when they can not (i.e., exercising their individual rights), the state has no role to play in the affairs of men.

Consider these questions: In a free society, should there be:

• regulations imposed on businesses in addition to objective criminal and civil laws?
• a public education system implementing state-influenced curricula and teaching methods?
• restrictions on free speech in the name of not offending others?
• an ability for the government to seize real estate in the name of eminent domain?
• a central banking system that holds a monopoly over the supply of money?

Principles of a Free Society is a new Web site that explores Ayn Rand's answers to these and many other questions. It presents and defines the principles that are necessary for a truly free society.