Why Freedom?

"Why Freedom?" is the question answered today on the blog of democide researcher Prof RJ Rummell. Why for instance do we so rarely hear the 'f' word in popular political use?

His answer is here, contrasted with power -- a concept all-too encompassing in popular political use:

We have identified power with greatness, thugs with statesmen, and propaganda with results; we have let moral and cultural relativism silence our outrage, while conceding the moral high ground to the utopian dreamers; we have refused to recognize evil as evil; and we have ignored the catastrophic human cost of such confusions, and the natural and moral right to freedom.

By contrast, he says:

we have wondrous human freedom as a moral force for the good. Freedom produces social justice, creates wealth and prosperity, minimizes violence, saves human lives, and is a solution to war. In two words, it creates human security. Moreover, and most important: People should not be free only because it is good for them. They should be free because it is their right as human beings.