“So how do you preserve such freedom,” Zehron countered, “if the state itself coerces the people to follow its rules?”
“Rather,” Soval replied, “the people mutually consent to abide by those rules for their own collective benefit. They ensure their own safety and liberty by agreeing to respect others’ safety and liberty—even when that requires making compromises. Absolute, unfettered freedom is only possible for one who lives absolutely alone. When one is part of a community, one must balance one’s own freedoms and rights with those of others. There are constraints on freedom, but only to the extent that different individuals’ freedoms come into conflict. It is the responsibility of the state to moderate those conflicts equitably.”
“Or, as a famous human jurist once said, ‘The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins,’ ” Archer added.
“And what about the rights of businesspeople,” Tenott asked, “to conduct their business in the most profitable manner, without the government dictating limits?”
“Where’s the profit if there’s nobody to protect them from being attacked, robbed, or enslaved themselves?” Archer countered. “It’s not just the Federation government that wants this. Many of your own trading partners have been asking for more protection from Orion and Klingon and Nausicaan raiders. They want guarantees that their merchants and freighter crews will be safe when they pass through Rigelian space.”
Archer looked around at the board members. “There can’t be true freedom for anybody . . . unless they have freedom from fear. Unless they know their right to live, to choose, to love, and to hold on to their possessions won’t be taken from them by force, whether by a government or by other people. In any free system, there have to be some basic standards of behavior that everyone agrees to abide by, some basic protection for their lives and their rights—and they have to agree to empower somebody with the authority to enforce those standards if anyone violates that social contract. It’s not enough just to trust the marketplace to balance everything out. You can see that isn’t working.”
“Don’t presume to lecture us on how well our system works, Admiral,” Zehron sneered. “We have our own mechanisms for ensuring fair trade and preserving the security of Rigel as a whole. It’s a system that’s served the Rigelian peoples well for centuries, since even before first contact.”
“But the Rigelian peoples had centuries to work within those principles and find a healthy balance in their application,” Soval replied. “While those who immigrated here,” he went on, nodding to Tenott, “did so because they found your system agreeable and chose to live within it. It is in the best interest of all the permanent inhabitants of Rigel to make the system work in a way that does not disrupt the social order.”
“Although,” Director Hemnask muttered with displeasure, “the First Families have not been constrained by that logic.”
“That is true. Nor are they alone in that regard. As the Rigelian trading community expands farther into the galaxy, there will be more who choose to abuse the license you grant them—who will not see the benefit of restraining themselves for the good of the greater market and will simply exploit the lack of law enforcement and worker protections to serve their own selfish interests.”
Zehron tilted his head back. “So you’re telling us to be afraid of outside impositions from others so that we’ll accept outside imposition from you. How would we be any less exploited by the Federation?”
“Because you’d be members of it,” Archer stressed, “participants in the decision-making process just as each of your worlds is a participant in the Rigelian community.”
“So why should we join you,” Tenott asked, “instead of you joining us? Why should we, the older community, take second place?”
“It is not a question of first or second,” Soval told him. “While your community is quite cosmopolitan, it is based primarily in one star system. You trade and travel widely, but your own system provides such abundance of worlds and resources that you have never needed to colonize others. The Federation, by contrast, is already an interstellar power encompassing multiple systems—a partnership of several nations like your own.”
“There’s another reason,” Archer said. “At the risk of blowing my own horn, that reason is Starfleet. Starfleet’s strength is why Rigel and a number of its trading partners turned to the Federation for help with the Vertian crisis last year. And Starfleet’s skills in science and diplomacy were key to ending that crisis peacefully. If you joined the Federation, you’d know that Starfleet would always be there for you when you needed it.”