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Free Culture

Free Screwdrivers

Screwdrivers are useful tools. You can open consumer electronics with them, you can assemble furniture with them, or you can misuse them to open tins of paint. There is nothing profound about them, they are just useful devices. They are not something you have to think about, just go to the shop and buy one then use it as you see fit.

In a free society, people should be free to use screwdrivers for whatever tasks they have at hand to pursue their own chosen ends within society. For the state or other entities to try to prevent them from doing so would be an infraction of personal liberty. It would be coercion, unfreedom. It should be resisted by the people and wherever possible the ability to use screwdrivers freely should be defended.

Screwdriver freedom is a trivial but vitally important matter. It’s trivial because all you have to do to support it is to make sure that people can use screwdrivers. It’s vitally important because how free would you be if you were not always free to use a general-purpose device to pursue your chosen ends within society?