The "Mainstream" Starting Point
This Catholic vision is very different from mainstream American thought.
The liberal and conservative traditions in the US both emphasize rugged
individualism. Freedom is the paramount value. The two competing
ideologies differ simply in the purposes for which they promote freedom.
Conservatives want freedom from government regulation of business and
from taxes. Conservatives want to conserve the domains that individuals
had in earlier times-gun ownership, low taxes, using land however one
wants without regard to the environment--but not to expand those domains
in ways that might threaten traditional social and family relationships.
Liberals want to expand the domains of individual freedom - gay rights,
immigrants' rights, prisoners' rights, children's rights--but not to
conserve practices that they see as helping some at the expense of the
liberty or opportunity of others. Liberals want freedom from government
regulation of lifestyle choices, but are happy to have government
regulation of business, in order to protect consumers or workers.
One problem with analyzing problems on this basis of freedom is that we
are left with little guidance when freedoms collide:
-
a racist parent's "freedom" to teach his
children prejudice infringes on other children's freedom to live
without fear or discrimination;
-
a woman's freedom to control her body collides
with her baby's freedom to be born;
-
a victim's freedom from fear of a past attacker
collides with a convict's right to atone for the crime and then move on
with his life;
-
a businessperson's freedom to maximize profits
collides with the employee's freedom to live a decent life through a
living wage.
The reason freedoms collide is not merely that we cannot agree on which
freedoms are priorities, but rather, that the principle of individual
freedom is difficult to extend to all equally- your individual freedom,
pushed to its limits, eventually tramples on mine.
The "freedom" principle also provides inadequate guidance when
individual freedoms collide with the common good:
-
my freedom to paint my house bright purple or
to put pornographic pictures on my front lawn undermines the
community's desire for beauty and decency;
-
my freedom to develop a piece of real estate may
collide with the community's concerns about traffic or protecting
wetlands.
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