The Reason Foundation is putting on a cool seminar in Amsterdam this year. I’ll be among the speakers. But David Nott, Reason’s president, informs me that Trey Parker & Matt Stone, creators of “South Park,” are likely to be bigger draws.
A History of Liberty:
Amsterdam has a special place in the history of freedom. As Benedict de Spinoza noted — in defense of religious toleration — in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670):
“In order to prove that from such freedom no inconvenience arises, which cannot easily be checked by the exercise of the sovereign power, and that men’s actions can easily be kept in bounds, though their opinions be at open variance, it will be well to cite an example. Such an one is not very, far to seek. The city of Amsterdam reaps the fruit of this freedom in its own great prosperity and in the admiration of all other people. For in this most flourishing state, and most splendid city, men of every nation and religion live together in the greatest harmony, and ask no questions before trusting their goods to a fellow- citizen, save whether he be rich or poor, and whether he generally acts honestly, or the reverse. His religion and sect is considered of no importance: for it has no effect before the judges in gaining or losing a cause, and there is no sect so despised that its followers, provided that they harm no one, pay every man his due, and live uprightly, are deprived of the protection of the magisterial authority.”