My Favorite Civil Liberty: Stupidity

In these times of intense political discourse (or non-discourse if you're so inclined) it's nice to be reminded why you love this country: our civil liberties.

Many people don’t realize that our most sacred freedom in America isn’t explicitly mentioned in the Bill of Rights, nor in any Supreme Court brief.  Yet, it is inherent in the theoretical underpinnings of this country’s Constitution; it’s the freedom of stupidity - perhaps the most widely used liberty.

At its core, the Constitution and in particular the Bill of Rights mean to ensure the freedom for people to make decisions for themselves; they make no stipulation as to the intelligence of those decisions.  The only freedoms the Constitution prohibits are those that infringe upon other citizens rights to act freely. So as long as your stupidity doesn't directly endanger others, you have the implicit right to be stupid.  It’s what makes us American – the freedom of choice, the choice to be stupid.

The freedom of stupidity is represented in the Bill of Rights and its notion of the free market of ideas.  The freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and due process ensure that individuals freely make decisions for themselves without government interference, thus the free market of ideas.  The Bill of Rights ensures that an individual can choose to be stupid and use his/her freedom speech for something completely stupid, racist bull-ish, for instance.  We all have a right to participate in the free market place of ideas, even if you are a stupid arsehole. It sounds strange to say, but that is the beauty of America: you have the choice to be an i.

As with any free market, there are going to be good products and bad products; it is up to the individual consumer to decide which ideas will thrive and which will fail in the market.  The consumers, making rational decisions for themselves, drive the market.  If market forces prevail, stupid ideas, like racism, will fail while good ideas, like equality, will triumph.  It is a beautiful thing because it is the people making the decisions on what is good and what is bad, and not the government.

Any investor will tell you, the market ain’t always grand. America’s free market of ideas is no different.  We have had some rough patches in our history: genocide of the natives, slavery, war, war, and more war, but the market worked properly and there were corrections.  People eventually realized the ideas they bought into are stupid and invested in better ideas.   It wasn’t always pretty and we have much more progress to make, but isn’t it better that the people decide what the market will bare than the government?

Our founding fathers understood that a free society must allow people to think for themselves without overt government interference, even if it meant allowing them to be stupid.  I’ll be the first one to tell you I disdain bigoted homophobic idiot arseholes, but I accept them as a necessary evil to the free market of ideas.  Because freedom for all things, all the time, and the freedom to be stupid are inseparable. “All” is the operative word – as in “all ideas” – smart or stupid.  It is that idea that has allowed America to survive and progress.

So next time you make a completely stupid decision, thank our Founding Father's faith that you will learn your lesson and not be such an idiot in the future.  Thank them for the freedom of stupidity.