The article’s premise is wrong. Freedom and rights are subject to the reciprocal freedom and rights of others. “Your rights end where my nose begins.” One of the fundamental collective rights of a nation state is to have a border and control who goes through it. Requiring passports is not an impingement on anyone’s freedom; it is the exercise of a country’s freedom to control who trespasses within its borders.
The whole angle about passports being a recent phenomenon is a red herring. Routine international travel is also a new phenomenon, enabled by relatively new technology (airplanes). That passports were not common in the 19th century does not suggest that people back then believed that controlling their borders was unimportant.
The whole angle about passports being a recent phenomenon is a red herring. Routine international travel is also a new phenomenon, enabled by relatively new technology (airplanes). That passports were not common in the 19th century does not suggest that people back then believed that controlling their borders was unimportant.