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limited sense), but still be a slave to unworthy desires. “Liberty”, in the truer sense, points to the
capacity to develop those higher, but still in-born, aspects of human nature to their fullest extent,
voluntarily using one’s talents to become a wiser, more just, more moral, and therefore better,
example of humanity. This way of approaching liberty values more than inner freedom, for a
tyrannical government can do a great deal to twist and deform a human being unfortunate enough
to exist within its grasp, and so the prevention of overreaching on the part of political authority is
a central element of this understanding of freedom. A distinction remains, nevertheless, that
would separate it from the libertarian’s absolute refusal to acknowledge any role for government
in distinguishing better uses of freedom from worse ones, and taking measured steps to
encourage the former and discourage the latter. In short, some territory exists between the
anarchist utopia, on the one hand, and the realm of authoritarianism, on the other, within which a
government may make its people truly freer by bringing them to see the difference between the
better and the worse uses of a condition in which they are relatively unconfined and able to
choose for themselves how they will direct their lives.
These commonplaces lead to the second assumption, which is that government may
indeed teach these distinctions and that, to say no more, it is neglecting its duty if it does not do
so. A liberal government is not precluded by its respect for the rights of its populace from
attempting to make them into better citizens, although it must accept that its means of doing so
are relatively limited. Indeed, because its coercive arm is not long, it must rely primarily on
education, and its liberal nature does not impose upon it a value neutrality that would force it to
adopt the guiding rule of “anything goes”. In its educational institutions, it is not obliged to
refrain from saying that patriotism, tolerance, respect for the persons and property of others, and
Convention