Dozens of regular readers of my syndicated column despise, loath, revile, reject etc my latest column — in which I argue that we are more free than at any time in American history. They are disappointed with me and hope it was an example of failed sarcasm. It wasn’t. We are freer today, on the whole, than pretty much any time in the past. I’m speaking as broadly and as inclusively as possible. That doesn’t mean some freedoms haven’t be tragically curtailed – property rights the most obvious example — but other freedoms have been expanded, most notably freedom of speech. As someone who doesn’t consider the mazimization of freedom for its own sake to be the ultimate aim of politics, I’m willing to say that we’re not necessarily better for our greater liberties.

Regardless, I have to assume many Corner readers will also despise the column. If you want to tell me so, fine. But please give me concrete examples of how your grandparents were demonstrably more free. Also, please no long diatribes about positive law versus natural law and all that. On a theoretical level you might have a good case, but on the practical level such arguments constitute an attempt to ignore the real circumstances of peoples’ lives in favor of an abstraction (somewhere some Randian just spat orange soda out his nose).