"I wish for a world free from tyranny: the tyranny of hunger, disease; and free from tyrannical governments," George W. Bush wrote on a note placed upon a Japanese "wishing tree" at the G8 summit. "I wish for a world in which the universal desire for liberty is realized." Is liberty a universal desire? The need for governments to protect liberty by the writ of law suggests that it is not. Far more common than the desire to leave other people alone, unfortunately, is the compulsion to tell other people what to do. However scarce tyranny is in George W. Bush's imagined future, in experienced history it is not tyranny but liberty that has been scarce. Like hunger and disease, tyranny has always been with us. Its eradication is the stuff of wishing trees, not national policy.

The desire to have liberty is universal. The desire for other people to have liberty is not.