“Live and Let Live”, right? If I want to blow my brains out with a 44, that’s my right! If I want to get hooked on crack it’s my right! If I want to mutilate my body or engage in dangerous sexual practices, it’s my right! Or not?
What is the opposite of “Live and Let Live”? Perhaps it could be the philosophy “Kill and Let Kill”. Or maybe you’d word it “Die and Let Die”. Either way, it’s the same concept.
What would it be like to live under the philosophy of “Die and Let Die”? That would mean you could go around destroying yourself as much as you wanted. You could take into your body whatever poisons you can get your hands on. The poisons that alter your mental state are more desirable than the ones that simply destroy your body since they do even more damage. It would mean we should allow people to kill each other if they really wanted to. It would mean not stopping a murderer on a rampage, or a drug dealer, or our enemies who want to slaughter us.
In fact “Die and Let Die” would dictate that we shouldn’t do certain things or allow certain kinds of behavior. It would mean we shouldn’t engage in productive behavior that will help us feed, clothe and shelter ourselves. It would mean not reproducing, or reproducing but bringing children into an environment in opposition to the environment that would raise them into healthy adults. It would breed those children to live by “Die and Let Die”. And it would mean we would use physical force to stop those who engaged in productive behavior.
I hope this sheds some light on what the opposite of “Live and Let Live” really is. When you use “Live and Let Live” to justify the use of dangerous, addictive chemicals, when you use it to justify destroying our ability to reproduce and raise children in a wholesome environment, when you use it to justify allowing people to injure and damage each other, you are doing it wrong.
Freedom and liberty are not the freedom and liberty to destroy. It is not the freedom and liberty to pervert and corrupt and punish wholesome behavior. Freedom and liberty demand that we imprison and punish those who would harm our freedom and liberty, or those who would use their freedom and liberty to do evil. If it were not so, it would not be freedom and liberty in the first place!
