The final chapter

And with that, I think I’ll bring Freespace to a close. It’s time to pack up, at least for a while. Perhaps some day, for some big events, I might come back, but it’s time to turn out the lights, for several reasons.

First, I started this blog in April of 2003, as a single, very lonely man living in a little shack by myself. Now, I’ve got a home; I’m a prospective husband; the cost of maintaining a weblog (in money, inconsiderable; in time, considerable), is just not worth the rewards.

Second, on the subject of rewards: it’s nice that I’ve received a good deal of readership; if my stats are to believed, I’ve received over 120,000 page hits since moving to Typepad, with an average readership of about 300 per day. Not to mention about 100 other blogs giving me permalinks. That’s nice for a personal blog, but it’s not big enough to justify the amount of time and energy I put into it.

Third, what readership I do have is a problem. Unfortunately, it’s not easy separating myself from my career and other interests, and it’s been hard for some readers to see this as my personal weblog where I can say what I want to. In my mind, this is like a personal conversation, easily separable from my professional pursuits, but others have not seen it this way. I’d prefer to cut it off now than to feel further pressure to qualify or bend my words.

Fourth, my writing, in the past few months, has become increasingly bitter; not a side of myself that I am very fond of, and certainly not the sort of person I want Erin to be living with. Not to mention that, of late, the blog’s been primarily about law. One thing I like about myself is that I am not only about law. But I find that my time is now so divided that specialization is creeping up on me more and more. The solution to this is either to blog about more things, or to cut off the blogging and enjoy the extra time to expand my horizons. Given the weight of other considerations, the latter seems preferable.

I will, of course, continue to write for Liberty, and other publications. I’ve not yet decided whether to continue with Panda’s Thumb. I may blog again, someday, if events warrant. But for now, it’s best to sign off.

My final message is to always love your freedom, and fight for it with all you can. It is the rarest, and most precious, possession on earth. Without freedom, no other joys are meaningful; no victory is worthy; no riches are wealth; no tomorrows make a future. The right to speak and think and believe and study and work and earn and keep and buy and sell and be what you are, as you want, on your own terms, as an individual worthy to make choices, are beyond any treasures that so-called benefactors might offer you in trade. Do not let people tell you that freedom means moral chaos or poverty. This is not true. Do not let people tell you that folks in other parts of the world don’t long for freedom. This is not true. Do not let people tell you that it is all too late, and that talk of freedom is all speculation divorced from the real world. It is not true. Do not let people tell you that the Constitution is outdated, and that our lives must be governed, governed, governed, as the price for living in society. This is not true. And do not let people tell you that maturity consists of giving up your idealism, or that responsibility means giving up on your freedom, or that wisdom consists of accepting illogical arguments. These things are not true. I’ll end with a passage from John Milton, the great Christian libertarian, who wrote what I’ve always thought was a gorgeous epitaph. He wrote it in the 1660s, when it looked like all hope for freedom was lost—England had restored the Stuart monarchy to the throne, and Milton’s dream of a free society seemed doomed. Of course, only a century later, it revived again, far stronger than ever before.

[W]ith all hazard I have ventured what I thought my duty to speak in season, and to forewarn my country in time; wherein I doubt not but there be many wise men in all places and degrees, but am sorry the effects of wisdom are so little seen among us.... What I have spoken, is the language of that which is not called amiss “The good old Cause:” if it seem strange to any, it will not seem more strange, I hope, than convincing to backsliders. Thus much I should perhaps have said, though I were sure I should have spoken only to trees and stones; and had none to cry to, but with the prophet, “O earth, earth, earth!” to tell the very soil itself, what her perverse inhabitants are deaf to. Nay, though what I have spoke should happen (which thou suffer not, who didst create mankind free! nor thou next, who didst redeem us from being servants of men!) to be the last words of our expiring liberty.

Update: Thanks to Jonathan Rowe, CrimLaw, Brett Marston, Crime and Federalism, Decorabilia, Amber Taylor, Pejmanesque, Economics with a Face, TexasBestGrok, Dispatches from The Culture Wars, Slithery D, Becky Pease, Farkleberries, Liberty Cadre, Musings from The Doc, The BenjoBlog, Signifying Nothing, An Inclination to Criticize, Overlawyered.com, Southern Appeal, De Novo, and Countertop Chronicles, as well as the many people who emailed, for the kind words.

Update 2: I'm baa-aaack!