To the editor:

The basic issue at the heart of all political debates is simple: individualism versus collectivism. Individualism holds that each individual has inalienable rights that cannot be taken away by any other person or group. Collectivism holds that individuals have no inalienable rights apart from the collective and that the group may take away the life, liberty or property of any individual whenever it pleases.

Individualism holds that government’s role must be limited to protecting the rights of individuals and that no person has the right to initiate the use of physical force against another. Collectivism holds that the power of government is unlimited and that it may initiate force to secure whatever the majority desires.

Many people fail to recognize that individualism and collectivism cannot co-exist for long in a free society. This is due to their general confusion over the concept of rights. When they claim something as a “right” they fail to ask: “Does it involve government initiating force against someone to secure it?” Fundamental rights do not conflict in this manner. Rights are freedoms that can be exercised without the permission of others and do not require the initiation of force to obtain them.

Collectivist notions of “welfare rights” or “the common good” ultimately involve the violation of individual rights and, if taken to their logical conclusion, lead eventually to the totalitarian welfare-warfare state.

We must stem the tide of collectivism (beginning in Lawrence) by recognizing that life, liberty, and property are the only rights we have.

David Claassen-Wilson,

Lawrence