Andrew Tobias has a great idea for a book: “I would like to see someone write book called, quite simply, A Cup of Coffee. It would have a chapter on each element thatÂ’s involved — or at least as many as could fit (decaffeination? color printing on the sides of coffee cans?).” And I don’t even like coffee.
When I read Will Hutton on economics, my blood pressure begins to rise. But his latest column looks at the devaluation of the concept of liberty and it’s right on the mark.
“The great idea of liberty has become polluted by two great conservative deformations. The first is the argument that freedom in essence is about freedom from any action from the state which is defined a priori as coercive and bad. Indeed, because the state can do nothing that is not at core about the exercise of state power, even its attempts to do good are dangerous and menacing to freedom. Thus the less state in any guise, the more liberty. The second deformation follows from the first. No action should be taken against those who want to enjoy their property and wealth; any limitation in the name of redistribution, equality or fairness is again coercive. Once these two conceptions are allowed to define liberty, so pornography, hunting foxes, using imperial measures and disputing all forms of taxation become fundamental issues of freedom.”
I can’t say that ending hunting with dogs is a major issue for me (although if pushed, I’m against it), but Hutton takes the current furore over hunting to make an important point.