Liberty and Limits

Last week the Board of Dictators held a human rights summit, as many of the more prominent human rights organizations (including the ACLU and Amnesty International) had written to express concern that we had not specified how we would ensure human rights as dictators of the world. At the GNU Public Dictatorship we are nothing if not committed to human rights, and we told them as much in the extremely successful summit.

One thing we learned from the summit, though, is that there is a general misunderstanding about the roles of liberties and limits in society, which is why I am posting this. Make no mistake about it, the GPD is in favor of giving world citizens all of the liberties that we can. We believe that when people are free to choose their own destinies they are generally happier and more productive than they would be under duress. Unfortunately, however, people across the world have frequently shown that they are incapable of managing even the simplest liberties possible. For example, a lady in New Jersey recently chose to raise at least 69 rabbits in her one-bedroom apartment. Another lady in North Carolina chose to move 61 Christmas trees into her house. Someone in Michigan chose to leave a heart (possibly human) in a carwash. Someone in Pennsylvania named children "Adolf Hitler" and "Aryan Nation" but can't understand why people think he is racist. These are just a small sampling of the deluge of strange decisions made every day, but they illustrate the point that society cannot be left completely to itself lest it degerate entirely.

At the summit we outlined our system, which essentially means that each world citizen will initially be on the same footing as every other citizen, but as they make good use of their choices the limits they have will be removed. An illustration or two may explain how this system is designed to work, and will probably be instructive. Parents naming children, for example, will initially have to run the names by the local GPD office, but after they demonstrate an aptitude for naming children they will be allowed to name their children by themselves, and only if the name is found to be in bad taste when the birth certificate is drawn up will the couple have to meet with officials at the GPD office. As for driving, we will build our system on top of the SQ freeway metering solution already proposed. We will allow newly-licensed drivers to have more restrictive route choices (with lower speed limits) and allow drivers who have demonstrated responsibility to use the unrestricted roads. This principle is essentially a way to avoid anarchy by give society limits, but also ensure that those citizens who are responsible enough can rise above the petty rules.