Flutterby™! : Ave Maria, FL

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Ave Maria, FL

2014-10-07 19:52:37.938674+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

Part of why I am no longer a libertarian of the Ayn Rand ilk is that at some point I realized that an economic system which allowed for the concentration of capital was indistinguishable from monarchy.

Daily Kos looks at Tom Monaghan's town, Ave Maria, Florida, and how deed restrictions and the like are put in place to maintain control, including no contraception sold in the town, restrictions on magazine and bookstore content, and the like.

Sarasota's Herald Tribune: New Fla. town aims to ban contraceptives: Pizza mogul paying to build Ave Maria and a university says Catholic principles will rule.

Gov. Jeb Bush, at the university's recent groundbreaking, lauded the development as a new kind of town, where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens. Bush, a convert to Catholicism, did not speak specifically to the proposed restrictions.

[ related topics: Religion Politics Objectivism Libertarian Privacy Invention and Design Current Events Civil Liberties Community Education Economics Government ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: Ave Maria, FL made: 2014-10-08 19:41:16.443439+00 by: Larry Burton

In a way this reminds me of Collegedale, TN in the 60s and 70s. Collegedale is the home of Southern Adventist University and McKee Bakery and has a very high percentage of adherents to the beliefs of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. There use to be no stores opened on Saturdays in that community and no drinks with caffeine were sold in any restaurants or the town's one grocery store.

Time's have changed. This community was the first municipality in Tennessee to offer its employees equal benefits for domestic partners (same-sex or opposite-sex) as offered to spouses.

I, personally, have no problem with the idea of a community like Ave Maria. I wouldn't live there but I think if we are to embrace liberty we need to fully embrace it as also giving a right for a community to freely create their own idea of a Utopia. Just make sure that as people can voluntarily enter into such a community they have the same right to leave such a community. And before it is brought up, yes, I would have no problem with a Muslim community enforcing Sharia law among the people who freely wish to live in such a community.

Certainly there are limits to this type of liberty when it pertains to minors and people with certain handicaps that can't freely enter and leave such a community. I think the key to any of this is that the community has to operate with these laws under a complete lack of coercion. If someone does not wish to abide by their laws they are free to leave but while a part of the community they are subject to the laws of the community.

#Comment Re: Ave Maria, FL made: 2014-10-08 20:39:27.977411+00 by: Dan Lyke

I think the problem comes when you get large scale control by a single morality-imposing block, like the coal mining towns of West Virginia pre-unions, or Alabama.

#Comment Re: Ave Maria, FL made: 2014-10-09 01:01:48.173753+00 by: Larry Burton

A lot of coercion was involved in West Virginia's coal mining towns pre-unions. The same can be said of most mill towns.