'You Can't Have Freedom for Free': An Excerpt from Matt Kibbe's Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff

"In 1977, I bought my first Rush album," writes Matt Kibbe. "The title of the disc was 2112, and the foldout jacket had a very cool and ominous red star on the cover." Kibbe quickly became obsessed with Rush and the album, a song cycle that tells the story of a futuristic and tyrannical society where individual choice and initiative have been replaced by the top-down control of an autocratic regime. From the album's liner notes, Kibbe was turned on to Ayn Rand and eventually other liberty-minded thinkers.

In this adapted excerpt from his latest book, Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto, Kibbe traces his evoution from an obsessive 13-year-old Rush fan to a grown-up still fighting for freedom. Folks have told both Rush members and Kibbe that believing in Ayn Rand's ideas is childish. But "I don't want to 'grow up,' if growing up means abandoning the principle that individuals matter, that you shouldn't hurt people or take their stuff," Kibbe writes.