The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

220 Chapter 36 • The Grand Inquirer
Political language is
designed to make lies
sound truthful and
murder respectable,
and to give an
appearance of
solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell
When the freedom
they wished for most
was freedom from
responsibility, then
Athens ceased to be
free.
Edward Gibbon,
1737 – 1794
Brainstorming
• What is responsibility?
• Do people want responsibility?
• Do people want leaders to make decisions
for them?
• Is there a danger in letting politicians make
decisions for you?
• Should adults have to accept rulings with
which they disagree?
• Is choice necessary in order to achieve
virtue?
• Are choice and virtue important to society?
• Why?
• Examples?
• What ethical issues are involved?
Commentary
It is a burden to have the freedom to make one’s
own choices and to decide one’s own values.
Free will entails using one’s mind. It entails
thinking for oneself and taking responsibility for
the outcome.
The freedom to choose is a weight some
people fi nd too heavy to bear – especially if
they have never been given the chance to do
so. They prefer to abdicate the burden of this
responsibility. They prefer to have decisions
made for them, to trust other people’s decisions
and to believe that everything will be provided
for them. In this way they will have someone
to blame when things go wrong. When things
go right, it further entrenches their indebtedness
to the decision makers. Surely, they think, they
could never have made those clever decisions for
themselves. These people are usually comfortable
with making only one decision – to live under a
system where all decisions are made for them –
from the cradle to the grave.