Freedom from What? Epicureanism and Liberty: The Manual for Personal Libertarians

Description

Force is a type of pain. And if man cannot force himself, then only others can force him. And if only others can force him, then he has two means to be free: (1) reform others, or (2) reform himself by escaping others. It's the second choice that R. W. Mecklenburg espouses in his book about epicureanism and liberty, Freedom from What?, where libertarian philosophy and self-help meet.

Where many books on libertarianism teach us how to reform our governments, Mecklenburg dismisses them. Why? Because in our America of 330 million people, it is nearly impossible for one man to reform anything-except himself, which is what Mecklenburg challenges us to do. With practical advice, he tells us how to divorce ourselves from painful people and abstain from painful things, the result of which is pleasure-the epicurean ideal. If Mecklenburg were a chef, fusion would be his specialty-as synthetic as his philosophy, which puts liberty squarely under the corpus of Epicurus where it belongs.

Man should focus his efforts where he can actually affect his outcomes. And in our global world of lost efficacy, Mecklenburg asks us to forgo mass movements that promise to free us, and to free ourselves instead. What is more liberative than that?

Freedom from What? promises to lead the next generation of libertarians in the epicurean pursuit of happiness, one that Thomas Jefferson deemed the only corollary to life and liberty. Mecklenburg advances the Jeffersonian ideal in this practical book about liberty and pleasure, with tips and tricks along the way.