Libertarian Mecca

This past Sunday in one of the poorer editions of the Chicago Tribune, there was a commentary offered by a gentleman with the libertarian outfit Reason.  Radly Balko lamented Chicago falling dead last in a series of measures over how free the city was.  This lament has its foundation in a Reason Magazine study of 35 U.S. cities.  The report evaluated cities based on “how much freedom they afford their residents to indulge in alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sex, gambling and food.”  They included other unique factors like gun control laws and surveillance cameras.  (I cannot find a link online to Reason Magazine’s report.  Here is a link to their website.)

So Chicago came in last, by a long shot.  The mecca of freedom is of course Las Vegas.  I know a number of people who like Las Vegas.  More specifically, I know a lot of people who like to visit Las Vegas and then leave it.  I have never been to Las Vegas, and I am basically to the point of consciously choosing never to go there just so that I can always I say I’ve never been to Vegas.  Enough about me.  There are a number of reasons people don’t stay in Vegas, and on the top of the list is that freedom isn’t the most important thing in life, at least as freedom is conceptualized in legally available hookers and all night buffets with extra trans fats.  Las Vegas is ordered toward hedonism.  Some people enjoy that, many of them include relatives.  Followers of Catholic thought will not be shocked to hear me say that authentic freedom is ordered toward achieving heaven.

There is nothing particularly Catholic about finding Las Vegas – oh how do I put this? – less than the pinnacle on an assortment of measures.  If we were to look to culture, we can recognize New York City’s greatness in her Broadway shows, her architecture like St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Guggenheim Museum, and her meccas of commerce like Wall St. and Times Square.  If we are to look toward social thought, anyone’s first stop would have to be Washington, D.C., with her great universities and the headquarters of myriad think tanks.  Even on the entertainment side, in a heresy of all heresies, one could make compelling arguments for Orlando, FL, and greater Los Angeles.  For those who aren’t familiar with my views by the way, I have nothing in principle against gambling; I haven’t done so in close to a decade.