An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson

“Positive freedom is your freedom to do: to vote, to wear the clothing you want, to own arms, to blow smoke into your neighbor’s porch when they’re trying to read a book outside on a sunny day. Negative freedom is your freedom from things: from being forced to take an impossible literacy exam before being allowed to vote, from wearing clothing you dislike or find oppressive, from having your cellular traffic recorded, from having your neighbors blow smoke onto your porch when you’re trying to read a book outside on a sunny day.
”Wielding this distinction, ‘freedom’ is neither inherently good nor inherently just, and descends into the murky gray that already embroils everything else in our lives. Each positive freedom we enforce strips away a negative freedom, and each negative freedom we guarantee eliminates a corresponding positive freedom. This sad state of affairs is often referred to as the Paradox of Positive Liberty.”

-Will Larson, 2019