I agree entirely with Mitch and Kathryn's emailer that all political ideologies try to tell people how to live. But is worth remembering that not all political ideologies are honest about this. Many species of liberal and leftist will insist for hours on end that they telling people how to live is contrary to everything they believe.

And of course libertarians — an ideologically diverse group truth be told — will often insist there is nothing coercive in their philosophy. The other week I met a libertarian out of central casting at the University of Wisconsin who insisted that there should be absolutely no legal restrictions on any form of speech. I kept coming up with absurd and sophomoric examples. Kiddie porn on saturday morning television? That's fine, she said, so long as no actual children were "harmed" in the production of it (i.e. if it's digitally simulated kiddie porn, who cares?). Repugnant sado-masochistic depictions on billboards across from a playground? No problem. Shrieking horrible racial insults at people in a public park? Hey, it's free speech. What libertarians like this young woman fail to understand is that this sort of "freedom" is oppressive too. It says that the burden to avoid such indecency should always and everywhere be placed on the parent and the individual. Even if 99.99% of the society agrees that there should be some communal norms and standards, in a "free" society they must be held hostage to the convention-defying whims of a single individual or a tiny minority of people.

This logic, in a much less extreme form, runs through much of liberalism and some of conservatism. It is the liberty of the suicide pact.