Libertarianism.org: Exploring Liberty

Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, gives a quick primer on the meaning and importance of privacy in a digital world filled with government surveillance, tracking infrastructure, and laws and regulations that stop you from protecting your privacy. He compares privacy online with its physical analogs and explains several different aspects of what privacy constitutes in our culture today.Produced by Evan Banks.

In the second lecture in the “Exploring Liberty” series, Christopher A. Preble, the author of The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free, gives an introduction to how American libertarians have historically felt about wars and military intervention abroad. Video produced by Evan Banks.

In the first lecture in the "Exploring Liberty" series, David Boaz, the author of *[Libertarianism: A Primer](http://www.libertarianism.org/publications/books/libertarianism-primer)*, gives an introduction to the theory and politics of liberty. Libertarianism is the belief that each person has the right to live his life as he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others. Libertarians defend each person's right to life, liberty, and property. In the libertarian view, voluntary agreement is the gold standard of human relationships. If there is no good reason to forbid something (a good reason being that it violates the rights of others), it should be allowed. Force should be reserved for prohibiting or punishing those who themselves use force, such as murderers, robbers, rapists, kidnappers, and defrauders (who practice a kind of theft). Most people live their own lives by that code of ethics. Libertarians believe that that code should be applied consistently, even to the actions of governments, which should be restricted to protecting people from violations of their rights. Governments should not use their powers to censor speech, conscript the young, prohibit voluntary exchanges, steal or "redistribute" property, or interfere in the lives of individuals who are otherwise minding their own business. Video produced by Evan Banks and Caleb Brown.