As an analogy, consider the following argument:

"We would get very sick if we stuffed ourselves with vitamins all day. Therefore the principle of good nutrition cannot be practiced consistently."

Of course, the consistent practice of good nutrition does not require that we engage in vitamin-stuffing. On the contrary, it prohibits such unhealthy practices, so that the above argument is entirely fallacious. Similarly, a consistent dedication to freedom and to rights does not entail tolerating aggression, but on the contrary requires that we oppose it. The fact that we are prohibited from exercising coercion against others in a free society is not a limitation on the principle of freedom, but a requirement for its full, unrestricted implementation.      Next page

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