Long Live My Freedoms, and Screw Yours

I have great affection for David Pogue, America's hardest-working and overall best technology journalist. Today, however, in a piece about cell phones, he comes up with this howler:

No matter how depressed you get about the state of the world, you have to have faith in one thing: when things swing out of control, the public has a way of setting things straight. Smoking bans, the backlash against closed-system electronic voting, the push toward renewable energy — all of it is public-driven, sometimes over the objections of our do-nothing leaders.

Come again? Insisting on transparent voting systems with built-in accountability is, in Pogue's world, the same as fining bar owners out of existence should they dare to allow smoking on their own property.

Um, David: one is a measure against tyranny; the other is pretty much the definition of tyranny. You're a smart guy: see if you can figure out which is which.

Comments

[Aaron]

Your freedom to smoke doesn't supersede the health and well-being of bar and club workers. Smoking bans are completely consistent with the libertarian ethos of "Your rights end where my nose begins."

[Hunter]

Oh, be serious, Aaron. If it were the Libertarian ethos we were working for:

1. the proprietor of the establishment would be able to choose whether or not he will allow smoking cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, or marijuana, drinking beer, wine, or liquor, serving red meat, etc.

2. the patron who wishes to partake would be able to choose whether he will partake, and whether he will patronize an establishment that has those rules, and

3. the patron who does not wish to partake would be able to decide whether the benefit derived from patronizing the establishment (good food, gets to talk to hot chicks, etc.) are worth the inconvenience (smelling cigarette smoke, having to yell in conversation to be heard, increased risk of death through lung cancer, etc.)

In a libertarian society, some establishments will choose to allow cigarette smoking, and some won't. Whether smokers are allowed to smoke in the establishment would be decided by the proprietor alone. People who dislike the smell or the effect of smoke would be absolutely free to not patronize those establishments that allow it.

Here's hoping the distinction isn't lost on you.