There are three prerequisites for a free society. 1) An educated population 2) An informed population 3) An empowered population
Only an educated population can analyze situations effectively and accurately. Such a people are not likely to be taken in by doublespeak and technobabble. Only people who understands what is going on are able to take effective action when it is warranted.
Only an informed population knows when action warranted. Accurate and complete information about what is going on both locally and internationally is essential and a free and unbiased press is a vital instrument to this end.
Only an empowered population is able to effect change in society when such change is deemed necessary. The people need the power to right a wrong when they see it. The voice of the people must be heard and obeyed. This can take many forms such as civil disobedience and public protest as well as voting representatives who share their ideology on specific issues. The people also need the ability to remove representatives who fail to honor their commitments. There should be a minimum time lag between the decision to right a wrong and the actual change.
Maintaining these three prerequisites are the only fundamental issues facing a society. All problems in functioning free society are self-correcting. The people recognize a problem and then correct it. Problems that continue stem from a failure in one or more of these prerequisites.
Without all three of these prerequisites, a society cannot be said to represent the will of the people. A population living in a society that does not represent their will may do anything they deem necessary to establish one that does.
When The People Were The Police
by Larry Pratt
Excerpt:
There was a time when the word "police" was not usually used as a noun. It was a verb that described what the people did to keep order in society. Today the people only police a campground, or some similar action.
The history of the changing meaning of police is a history of the transformation of America from a society of limited government serving the people to our present plight where the people serve the government . . .
Read the full story at http://www.newswithviews.com/Pratt/larry28.htm
What defines a free society?
The short answer:
A society, regardless of its diversity, in which every member can accurately define 'FREE', and acknowledge personal responsibility for maintaining its precepts for everyone who would seek it.
It does not mean a chicken in every pot.
It does not mean a public subsidized education.
It does not mean mandatory adjustment of every other individual's life to accommodate the:
sexual orientation
skin color
religious bent or lack thereof
physical or mental handicap
(and more but you get the picture)
Freedom is "a level playing field" where every man has an equal opportunity to realize his/her potential for "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" through their own labor.
Freedom is a government that tends to "Corporate defense" and "interstate commerce", and no one serving in government does it for any other reason than a sense of duty.
In God's economy the aged, handicapped, widowed, orphaned and imprisoned are the personal responsibility of the families of those affected
and the church.
The government is devoid of compassion and has no business in these areas of compassionate need.
We will again have what we're trying to get away from if we make government responsible for areas of our lives we ourselves need to tend to.
The Definition of ‘Family’ in a Free Society
What is “family?” The definition of family depends on who answers the question.
Gordon Neal Diem, D.A. describes the state’s definition of “family” as:
The State's Definition of Family
The state tends to define family in structure-functional terms. From all the various alternative definitions of family, the state selects portions from each to create authoritative and legal definitions of family. The definitions of family are based on the needs of the state. Instead of creating one single all-encompassing definition of family, various governments, and various agencies of the various governments, each have slightly different needs and objectives, so each creates its own individual definition of family. It is the state's needs and objectives that determine the definition, not the society's, the individual's or the family's needs and objectives.
Since one of the state's historic functions is accounting for numbers of people (the census), the state needs to be informed on the whereabouts and living arrangements of all people under its jurisdiction. One way to maintain accountability is to license and register couplings, cohabitations and procreations. Only licensed and registered couplings create a "legitimate" family. To protect its definition of family, the state enacts laws against fornication and adultery, insuring only licensed and registered couples cohabit and copulate, and discourages "illegitimate" births. Zoning codes prevent two unlicensed people from cohabiting as a "family," prevent anyone other than a legally defined child or parent from cohabiting with a family, and prevent residential occupancy by non-traditional "families," including fraternities and sororities. These and a host of other government-enacted and government-enforced laws and regulations insure the state's ability to account for the physical location of people under its jurisdiction.
Throughout most of history, states sought to expand their populations by various means, including the procreation of its citizens. Marriage legalizes and legitimizes the offspring and creates a "family." In many nations, and in many American states, the failure to procreate is grounds for divorce or annulment of the marriage and dissolution of the family.
In state-enacted marital and divorce law, the economic obligations among family members insure that children and women are prevented from becoming the financial responsibility of the state. Again, the needs of the state define family and family obligations…
The Definition of Family in a Conservative Free Society is:
In a Conservative "free society," such as one envisioned by sociologist Robert Nisbet, with a severely reduced role for the state and an enhanced role for alternative social institutions — church, economy, educational system — the state's needs no longer prevail in the definition of family. Instead, the needs of the alternative social institutions are paramount.
Throughout history, the Church has been especially vocal and rigid in its definition of family. For example, the Church often refuses to recognize a coupling as a family if the couple is not married in Church, if one of the partners in the coupling had been in a previous coupling, or if one of the partners in the coupling does not adhere to the teachings and practices of the Church. Through its power to define family, the Church meets its own needs to insure member loyalty and continued submission to the teachings and practices of the Church.
The economic system also creates and applies its own definitions of family. For example, the economic system distinguishes between child labor in industrial production within the wage labor system and child labor for agricultural production on the family farm. The economic system markets goods and services produced by the economy to the family consumption unit and defines family with as few members as possible to discourage the sharing of goods and services within an extended family. The economic system also establishes a system of financial accountability so debts owed by one family member become an obligation on other family members.
In a Conservative free society, individuals and couples merely exchange the state's definitions of family for definitions imposed by other social institutions…
Social Scientists’ Definition of Family, The Definition of Family in a Libertarian Free Society and more at http://libertariannation.org/a/f43d1.html
The Definition of 'Justice' in a Free Society
http://www.quebecoislibre.org/younkins27.htm