No one is harmed, for instance, by a moderate indulgence in alcoholic liquor; but since drunkenness is harmful both to the individual and society, the state, it is said, is justified in prohibiting the manufacture or sale of alcoholic liquor.
Laski uses the example of alcohol to illustrate the tension between individual freedom and societal harm, questioning state intervention.
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But we cannot understand the eighteenth century, or its theories, unless we realize that its temper was still dominantly aristocratic.
It is an attempt to give each man as similar a chance as possible to utilize what powers he may possess.
If the American colonies want to go, let them by all means cut adrift.
The more equality there is in a State, the more use, in general, we can make of our freedom.
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