One of the things that hamstrings and plagues freedom the most is the conceptual idea that a ‘society’ can be victimized – either by crime or by governmental policy. It is used to justify all sorts of laws, creating crimes that should not exist in an attempt to legislate and harness society itself. It places collectivism over individual freedom and victimizes free individuals while claiming to protect society.
The root at the problem of making a victim of society is that in order to do so, you must first claim that society itself is an individual. It seems like nonsense, but in order to be a victim to something, the victim must be a cohesive, independent being. Non-beings can’t be victims, because they are not sentient and have no personhood. For example, if I crash my car into another vehicle, is the car the victim or the driver? The driver is the being who owns the property, and therefore is the victim. The car is not a being, and neither is society. Though society can’t be property either, it still holds no personhood.
In order to give society personhood, we must first strip away the personhood of individuals. You can’t have it both ways. Either we believe that people have rights as individuals or we believe that they are only a tiny appendage of a larger person, therefore losing their identity as individuals. Either society is a person or individuals have their own independent existence. I believe that the answer to that is self-evident. Society is not a hive of a collective thought and mind. Rather it is made up of individuals, and I can’t imagine very many people in disagreement with that.
By viewing society as an individual that can be victimized, we eliminate not only the rights of individuals, but also eliminate their responsibilities. Now, it is up to government to determine the definitions of right and wrong. If people are just appendages of a larger being, then it’s no different from me setting rules for what my own hand can do. My hand has no say in the matter. It belongs to me and must do whatever I will. There is no freedom of thought, no freedom of expression, and it is not incumbent upon my hand to figure out on its own what good it can do for others.
I am certain there have been volumes of books written on this subject, but the heart of the matter is really simple. People are individuals, and have rights and freedoms as individuals. They can be victimized individually, but can never be a victim as a whole, because society is not a person. There is no such thing as policy that hurts society. Society is an amoral, artificial construct. Individuals themselves have morals, and therefore, morality cannot be legislated by government, and policy can hurt individuals. Individuals, acting upon their own beliefs must determine morality, and must be free to do so. Individuals must never be stripped of their personhood or of their responsibilities.
The implications of this are that creating policy and law that is designed to protect society or to control society is harmful to individual freedoms. Taking away individualism by replacing it with the idea that society can be victimized is the pathway that dooms individualism. It eliminates individual freedom and rights. No, it is not possible to victimize society. Society is not a person. Rather it is made up of individuals, and that is the construct that must be protected at all times. Individual freedoms are of utmost importance, and we must never subjugate them to the ridiculous notion that society can be a victim.
Danny Chabino
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