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A Dose Of Poison, Part 2 to blupete's Essay
"An Essay On Government"
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As David Hume expressed it, "one poison may be an antidote to another."1 A touch of one, even with its sickly effect, may save the fatal consequence of another. Freedom is essential to the life of an individual. Without it the individual will wither; and withered parts are useless, indeed, a burden on the whole. A person, however, cannot have a licence to do anything he or she likes. Rules for behaviour must be made and enforced, but not so much as to fatally poison freedom; but only a touch to preserve it. Thus, government is like a purifying poison, a stabilizer; needed, not for itself, but so to permit the highest level of individual freedom without anarchy.
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