Some enlightened thoughts about liberty and government

Hello to all of the Enlightened Liberty readers out there.

I'd like to thank Jacob for inviting me to hop aboard this blog for the time being to share my thoughts on libertarianism as it relates to Buddhist thought. This blog is a great idea and a synthesis of such similar philosophies seems long overdue to me.

My first contribution may not directly relate to Buddhism, although it should be easy for y'all to see it's relevance nonetheless. Though not a Buddhist, Mohandas Gandhi and his life philosophy share much in common with those who take the teachings of Buddha to heart. While many people seem to think that Gandhi was a socialist of the statist variety, there is a website out there that provides words of wisdom of Gandhi that seem to challenge that notion. The site is called What Would Gandhi Do?, and it's main page contains quotes dealing with many different topics.

Here are a few of his comments worth noting from the section called "Gandhi on Freedom":

No action which is not voluntary can be called moral.

Any action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral

Freedom of the individual is at the root of all progress.

Then there's a section called "Gandhi on Government". I'll just go right ahead and paste the entire section here since it is full of good insight.

Government control gives rise to fraud, suppression of Truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help...I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at the heart of all progress...Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest....We find the general work of mankind is being carried on from day to day be the mass of people acting as if by instinct....If they were instinctively violent the world would end in no time...It is when the mass mind is unnaturally influenced by wicked men that the mass of mankind commit violence. But they forget it as they commit it because they return to their peaceful nature immediately the evil influence of the directing mind has been removed....A government that is evil has no room for good men and women except in its prisons.

Some interesting stuff to digest, especially if you thought that someone like Gandhi would have praised the modern welfare state.