Civics and Liberty
Law, Force, and Freedom
A citizen should understand not only what the law says, but why any person may ever claim the authority to compel another to obey it.
As we move through life, every action we take unfolds under one of two conditions: we either choose for ourselves through our own free will, or someone else—like a thief, or a tax collector—compels us.
When we are free to choose, we call that freedom.
When someone unlawfully forces us, as in the case of the thief, to do what they want, we immediately recognize it as wrong. We understand it as coercion, and we understand it as illegal.
But when the tax collector uses force, many people rarely stop to examine what is happening. It is still one person compelling another, yet it is treated as lawful. Why?
Not because the immediate experience is different—both involve someone taking your money against your will—but because of who is doing it and under what claimed authority.
If a private citizen forces you, we call it a crime.
If a person acting for the State forces you under color of law, we call it government.
This is not an attempt to claim the tax collector is the same as the thief. Rather, it is an attempt to stimulate a deeper question:
Why are they not the same?
This may be one of the most important civic realities for a citizen of the United States to understand, yet it is one of the least clearly examined:
Law is not self-executing.
Every law is carried out by persons, using force or the threat of force, against other persons.
A free people must understand this clearly, because the central question of civics is not merely:
“What should the law say?”
The deeper question is:
Why is it ever morally right for one human being to force another to comply, and what justifies our acceptance of such authority?