I just took the Freedom Scenarios Inventory at YourMorals.org, the producers of which include the estimable Jonathan Haidt. I was shocked by the result — not my result, but my result in comparison with the results obtained by other users.
Before you look at the result, you should read this description of the test:
The scale is a measure of the degree to which people consider different freedom issues to be morally relevant. As you may have noticed, this inventory does not include perennially contentious freedom-related issues like abortion or gun rights. These issues were deliberately excluded from this scale, because we are interested in what drives people to be concerned with freedom issues in general. On the other hand, people’s stances on well worn political issues like abortion and gun control are likely to be influenced more by their political beliefs rather than their freedom concerns.
The idea behind the scale is to determine how various individual difference variables relate to people’s moral freedom concerns. Throughout the world, calls for freedom and liberty are growing louder. We want to begin to investigate what is driving this heightened concern for freedom. Surprisingly little research has investigated the antecedents of freedom concerns. In the past, our group has investigated clusters of characteristics associated with groups of people who are more concerned with liberty (i.e., libertarians), but this type of investigation differs from the current investigation in that we are now interested more in individual differences in freedom concerns – not group differences…. It seems that many psychologists assume that many types of freedom concerns are driven by a lack of empathy for others, but we think the truth is more complicated than this.
The test-taker is asked to rate each of 14 scenarios on the following scale:
0 – Not at all morally bad
1 – Barely morally bad
2 – Slightly morally bad
3 – Somewhat morally bad
4 – Morally bad
5 – Very morally bad
6 – Extremely morally bad
7 – Extraordinarily morally bad
8 – Nothing could be more morally bad
Here are the 14 scenarios, which I’ve numbered for ease of reference:
1. You are no longer free to eat your favorite delicious but unhealthy meal due to the government’s dietary restrictions.
2. You are no longer free to always spend your money in the way you want.
3. You are not always free to wear whatever you want to wear. Some clothes are illegal.
4. Your favorite source of entertainment is made illegal.
5. Your favorite hobby is made illegal.
6.. You are not free to live where you want to live.
7. By law, you must sleep one hour less each day than you would like.
8. You are no longer free to eat your favorite dessert food (because the government has deemed it unhealthy).
9. You are no longer allowed to kill innocent people . [Obviously thrown in to see if you’re paying attention.]
10. You are no longer free to spend as much time as you want watching television/movies/video clips due to government restrictions.
11, You are no longer free to drink your favorite beverage, because the government considers it unhealthy.
12. You are no longer free to drive whenever you want for however long you want due to driving restrictions.
13. You are no longer free to go to your favorite internet site.
14. You are no longer free to go to any internet site you choose to go to.
I didn’t expect to be unusual in my views about freedom. But it seems that I am:
A lot of people — too many — are willing to let government push them around. Why? Because Big Brother knows best? Because freedom isn’t worth fighting for? Because of the illusion of security and prosperity created by the regulatory-welfare state? Whatever the reason, the evident willingness of test-takers to accede to infringements of their liberty is frightening.
The result confirms my view that democracy is an enemy of liberty.
* * *
Related posts:
Something Controversial
More about Democracy and Liberty
Yet Another Look at Democracy
Democracy and the Irrational Voter
The Ruinous Despotism of Democracy
Democracy and Liberty
The Interest-Group Paradox
About Democracy
Politics and Prosperity 
I took some of the inventories on the yourmorals site, but I found I couldn’t answer many of the questions for lack of additional information. For example, to the first example you listed, “You are no longer free to eat your favorite delicious but unhealthy meal due to the government’s dietary restrictions,” my answer would depend on the extent to which I am responsible, through the tax or insurance systems, for other people’s medical expenses. As for the second example you listed, “You are no longer free to always spend your money in the way you want,” my answer would depend on whether we’re talking about hiring a hit man to kill my wife or buying my grandchild a piece of licorice shaped like an AK-47. Much too simple to constitute a valid inventory, I’d say.
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Despite the open-endedness of many of the questions, a person’s overall score probably says a lot about his willingness (or lack thereof) to accept governmental infringements on his liberty. I take the relatively low average scores as an indication of the extent to which Americans are now willing to accept meekly whatever government dishes out.
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