Quote by AnnaK87


This kind of freedom and true absolute freedom - radical freedom, of the sort proposed by Jean Paul Sarte (who in my opinion is full of shit) - are two totally different things. I am not free, currently, from having a bug in my phone that the German government can activate whenever they choose; I am not free to talk about matters relating to the Time of National Socialism and the Holocaust in Public; I am not free to incite hatred in public ... I am not free to spew hate speech, or to walk out of a store with a bunch of stolen jewelry ---- of course, I can still make the choice to do these things, but my choice is limited by the practical realities of artificial consequences imposed by my government.

Freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom of the will --- these things are inherent freedoms of the human condition that cannot be taken away from us. The external freedoms are all very much secondary. In Germany, I am not free to do many things that people in America say they are --- but you know what? The way we do it here works, and it works very well ---- people don't deal well with too much freedom.

On the contrary, people in poorer nations have far more freedom --- their governments do very little to restrict their actions. The powerful people in Zimbabwe are "free" to abuse their countrymen relentlessly and as a result everybody suffers. Freedom of the individual and freedom for a society are inherently mutually exclusive and must be balanced. The freest condition is Survival of the Fittest, something which is quite antithetical to modern Western society.

I would go so far as to say that the freedom you think you enjoy is a complete illusion. The American government, and my own, can monitor our every move any time they choose --- if they wanted to, badly enough, they could invent charges and plant evidence to have us arrested ... they can destroy our homes and property by way of Eminent Domain ... they impose an artificial measurement of wealth (money) and then forcibly take it from us (taxes)... it's a social contract, practically speaking; we trade some of our freedom for comfort and protection and social order.

Quote by Meggsy
If I had let him get that far with me I would want more than to watch him.