ABSTRACT
Society is the creation of individuals all rationally desiring its benefits and therefore willingly promoting its success. Moreover, society is better served by proactive individualists, motivated to improve themselves and move things forward, than by passive or submissive souls who don't believe in their own power. Robinson Crusoe was free to be as individualistic as he pleased, but, being removed from society, that was of scant value to him. For most of our time on Earth, individualism was suppressed—by political, social, and economic circumstances, and by generally unforgiving conditions of life that required people to behave within narrow confines in order to get by. Our society, of feisty individualists, is admittedly full of flaws and problems. Always the objective is to make the trade-offs in such a way as to optimize the totality of freedom in our society. An orderly society of laws makes possible the flourishing of commerce and industry that expands our opportunities.
