An argumentative with a thesis statement which argues for or against liberty for the individual - Research Paper Example

Liberty is our freedom to self-determine and self-govern our lives, both in thought, expression, and actions. The Pursuit of Happiness is considered to be a substitution for the traditional right of Property, and this is a fundamental difference between the concept of natural rights as posited by the American founders vs. their European counterparts in Enlightenment thinking. Nevertheless, they key to both views of Liberty is the writing of John Locke where he posited a system of “natural rights” which were endemic to the human existence, and as such inalienable, unable to be abrogated by government institutions.

Men could bind together to form governments that protected these rights and led to progress in many areas, but if governments violated these fundamental rights of man, it was nature itself and no other legal or political power that the individual could invoke as the foundation for resistance or revolution. “The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of Nature for his rule.” (Locke, 1690) Thus, because of the natural rights of man, the individual has an autonomy based in liberty, freedom and self-determination, this is fundamental – in religion, God-given. In this manner, other men cannot violate these rights or take away the liberty of the individual without inspiring a legitimate self-defense reaction from the individual, just as if another sought to steal his property or take his life.

The justification of defense of Liberty is natural, based in the natural rights of man, and thus in Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” we see how the totalitarian society of the