I plan to use this blog for organizing my thoughts on principles of law, liberty, and how to conceptualize the relationship between them. How to identify and support their core principles and elements.

But not today. Today I’m operating on a much more basic level.

I’m borrowing the title of this post from a regular segment of the excellent Points of Return investment newsletter by John Authers.

Some Survival Tips I’m thinking about today, none of them particularly original.

• Spend time with friends and family, in person if possible.
• Get outside for a jog, a walk, or a hike. Bring a dog or a friend. Explore a new trail.
• Exercise in general, eat healthy meals, avoid too much alcohol, and prioritize sleep.
• Join clubs and other groups that don’t have anything to do with politics. Engage with other people. Build social networks in your community.
• Read books. Step out of the fuzz of moment-by-moment headlines. Enjoy literature, read scifi, explore history and biography. Use a library and read paper books.
• Reduce dependence on and daily engagement with big tech platforms. Try Mastodon. Use RSS and read blogs. Buy a used laptop and set it up with a good Linux distro like Mint or POP!_OS. It doesn’t have to be your main computer, but use it regularly. Find ways to get most of your daily computing done on it.
• Keep a journal and write in it regularly, either on paper or using an end-to-end encrypted service. Getting your thoughts out of your head and on to paper or a screen is extremely helpful in reducing anxiety, putting things in perspective, setting meaningful priorities, and organizing thinking.
• Look to philosophy and modern research on well being, balance, and equanimity. I find the Stoic tradition resonates with my outlook and experiences. CBT has much to recommend it. Positive psychology as well.
• Be decent. Be moral. Be compassionate. Stand against the tide of cynicism and degradation through your personal code and actions.

I’m reminded of Raymond Chandler’s description of the private detective in his 1944 essay The Simple Art of Murder for The Atlantic (with apologies for the gendered phrasing).

But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

My goal to use Lex et Libertas as a place develop and share ideas on the critical role the rule of law plays in securing liberty for individuals, groups, and societies at a time when illiberal forces are engaged in a concerted effort to undermine law, institutions, and frequently the concept of truth itself. These are interrelated.

Terminology

“Lex,” in the context of this site, refers to law, and in particular the concept of the rule of law. It includes the core principles, which will be explored in future posts, that the law applies equally to all, that public power is exercised transparently and within legal frameworks, that rights and obligations are clear and predicable, that individuals have meaningful access to enforce rights and obtain remedies, and that judges and courts are impartial, professional, ethical, and free from political, ideological, or partisan bias.

“Libertas” reflects freedom from oppression, self-determination and autonomy, equality of treatment and opportunity, freedom of expression, and security from violence by either the state or other individuals.

The Link Between Law and Liberty

My starting premise is that the rule of law is the best framework we have developed to secure the individual and societal benefits of liberty.

Why Now?

As mentioned above, the rise of illiberalism has advanced in parallel with the undermining of law, institutions, and individual liberties. This assault is often blurred and obscured by the misuse and inversion of terms like freedom, liberty, and constitutionalism, together with a flood of falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and related tactics to untether populations from notions of objective and provable truth and the practice and habit of critical reasoning.

This is not accidental. Through both instinct and design, the champions of illiberalism use these techniques to erode and overwhelm both public institutions and private critical reasoning with the aim of arrogating power, accumulating oligarchic wealth, crushing opposition, and smashing guardrails and checks on arbitrary self-dealing and autocracy.