Negative Liberty
Much is made about freedom and liberty in the United States. Indeed, this stretches all the way back to the founding of this nation. That founding was spurred and motivated in large part by the lack of freedom and representation that the British colonists felt they were receiving with the British crown. Over the years, one of the subtopics that has developed is negative liberty. Generally, negative liberty is the idea that someone has the right to not be bothered or pestered by people or authorities. While the idea of negative liberty sounds good and should generally be extended to people with no question, there are very specific instances where the concept of negative liberty is abused and should not be extended because it would indeed be wrong.
Analysis
Negative liberty is a subject that has evolved and changed over the years. The modern manifestation of negative liberty are people that are a tad too aggressive and unrealistic when it comes to people not meddling in their affairs. Common examples of this would be non-payment of taxes, abuse of children, sexual crimes of any sort and not keeping one's property safe and well-kept. However, the converse argument is that some government agencies and/or regular people are entirely too prudish and self-entitled when it relates to the affairs of others. People that snoop, sneak, eavesdrop and monitor with no good reason and/or legal basis typify this group. The author of this report shall offer more on this after consulting and citing some scholarly sources on the matter.
One such scholar was Isaiah Berlin. He penned some treatises on the subject of liberty in the 1950's and 1960's. Berlin makes his general perspective quite clear when he asserts that "political theory is a...
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