Stop Enforcing Your Beliefs – Or Risk Losing Your Own Freedom
You’ve probably had debates over who should get married, how many guns a person should own, or what substances should be legal. Maybe you’ve argued about whether milk should be pasteurized or not. These are personal choices that should belong to the individual, not to some distant government official or societal group trying to force their narrative on everyone else. We live in a world where people can have wildly different views, and that’s okay. But as soon as you throw force into the equation, trying to make someone else live by your rules, you’re opening the door to a government system that grows uncontrollably and flourishes on corruption and inefficiency.
Personal Liberty and the Problem with Force
Whether it’s deciding who can marry, how many firearms someone can legally own, what you choose to smoke, or even how your milk is processed, these decisions are deeply personal. They’re based on your lifestyle, your choices, your beliefs. You don’t need someone else telling you what’s right or wrong regarding how you live your life. What works for you doesn’t work for everyone else, and that’s the beauty of freedom.
But when you use force to control what others can do, whether through laws, mandates, or even just your own sense of “righteous” authority, you’re handing more power to a system that already doesn’t have your best interests at heart. What starts with the little stuff grows bigger, and eventually, the government isn’t just telling you what to do with your personal life. It’s controlling what you can say, who you can associate with, and ultimately, how you can even live your day-to-day life.
The more you rely on the government to “solve problems,” the more that government controls your choices. In the beginning, it seems harmless, with some restrictions here and some extra rules there. But this is how control seeps slowly into your life. Once you give the government an inch, they take a mile. One policy after another, the power to regulate your life is taken from you, and soon, every choice you make is just an illusion. Eventually, the freedom to live as you see fit can be replaced by a system where your life, your choices, and your freedom are dictated by someone else.
The Hidden Danger of Government Expansion
When you ask the government to make someone else’s life uncomfortable in order to make your own feel more secure or aligned with your values, you’re not just enforcing your beliefs. You’re inviting a bigger, more intrusive authority into the mix. This constant push for control, whether it’s telling people who they can marry or what they can own, leads us down a path that diminishes everyone’s liberty. You, too, will eventually fall under the weight of this government machine. The problem isn’t someone doing something you disagree with; it’s the force used to change them.
Eventually, these freedoms that start out with the best intentions begin to accumulate and pile on top of each other until you look up one day, and all of a sudden, you have less control over your own life than ever before. It wasn’t because people were bad. It was because you kept asking for more forceful control of things you disagreed with to “protect” your way of life.
That’s how liberty erodes, inch by inch when people lose sight of what matters most. They deceive us into collectively agreeing to remove personal choice and the ability to live free from imposed restrictions.
No More Forced Solutions
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
– Thomas Jefferson
You don’t have to agree with everyone. You can think someone’s choices are dumb. But you don’t have the right to impose force on them just because their view of the world differs from yours. The moment you initiate force in any form, whether it’s a law, regulation, or authoritarian pressure, you’re giving power to a system that doesn’t want you to make your own decisions. Soon, that same power will be turned on you.
If we truly want to preserve our liberty, we must stop using force to “correct” things we don’t like in other people’s lives. Instead, we must focus on peaceful, voluntary interactions. Once we start fighting to regulate every little personal decision, we will find ourselves in a system that doesn’t honor freedom or liberty.
A government that tells you what to do with your life isn’t a government that respects your freedoms. It’s the beginning of your own enslavement. The solution isn’t to impose your own beliefs on others. It’s to respect their right to choose for themselves and hold the line on your own right to do the same.