Freedom?

We all want to be free. That's obvious. However, freedom can't be taken for granted and has clear limits. You're not born free. It's not a gift from God. "Unalienable rights" do not exist in the real world, regardless of what your constitution or Bible has to say. You're only as free as the society you're part of permits you to be.


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source: Public Domain Pictures

This is such an obvious fact of life that I'm amazed by the number of people that just don't get it. From the day we're born to the day we die we're part of a larger collective of people, and with that come certain expectations from that collective. We can't just go around and do whatever we want, whenever we want and with or to whomever we want. If you don't understand that simple basic fact of life, you're either mentally challenged or there's something else wrong with you. There are two types of freedom, "active" or "positive freedom", and "passive" or "negative" freedom, and they're both limited. Always. Positive freedom entails the freedom to do and say what you want to do and say. Negative freedom entails the absence of forces and powers that limit your freedom.

Public discourse, as I experience it, focuses heavily on negative freedom, comes mainly from the political right and mostly talks about the government. They see the government as the main limiting factor on their freedom, and therefore they always talk about how the government needs to be smaller, as small as possible even. They often say that taxation is theft, and talk about "government mandates" creates in their minds visions of dictatorships. Now, I must say that I'm not completely insensitive to this fear, as governments have always, or at least for the half century that I've been alive, used their powers to cheat on their populations for the benefit of their donors. But that's no reason to hate the concept of a government. That should be a reason to work on a better democracy, to get the government we deserve, one by and for the people. If the government is by and for the people, and there's a constitution that protects minorities from the power majorities naturally have over them, it can not be big enough, right?

The political right, the libertarians, conservatives and anarcho-capitalists, have always fought for smaller government in favor of the fantasy of the free market; I hope that by now it's clear that the freedom of markets is directly opposed to the freedom of people. Markets and competition produce a few winners and lots of losers; that's just the nature of the game. And with winners and losers we're back to the hierarchies of old, where the winners define the freedoms, or lack thereof, for the losers. We're ruled by corporations and the military industrial complex, the winners. Government works for them, not for us. So, yes, I can understand the fear for more power to that kind of government. But we must always remember that it's actually the accumulated wealth and power of the financial elites we fear.

And there's the problem with the unrealistic clamoring for freedom from the political right; they want even more freedom for the few that are responsible for taking away their freedoms. That's so... unfortunate. And what makes this even more tragic, is that they lose sight of the freedoms of their peers, actually fight against those freedoms. I don't know how many interviews, videos and articles I've seen of people who rage against wearing a mask or taking a vaccine, where their motivation is that government has too much power, that they simply refuse because the government says so. That's so sad. I understand suspicion of and hate for the government as we know it, like I already said, but this is now blind hatred that clouds their vision to the degree that they don't see that wearing masks and taking the vaccine isn't for the government; it's for your fellow men and women. It's for your own health as well. It's to not burden the hospitals too much, so they can continue treating other illnesses as well, take care of you in a timely fashion if you need them to for whatever reason. Let me try this; here's a conversation between me and a made-up anti-masker-anti-vaxxer, me and AMAV:

AMAV: "I just want you to respect my freedoms, just like I respect yours; If you want to wear a mask, you go right on ahead. That's your choice. I just want you to respect my choice equally; I choose to not wear a mask."

Me: "That's all fine and dandy, but my choice to wear a mask is not just for me; by wearing a mask I protect you as well, and everyone else I come into contact with. When you live in a society, you sometimes do things you might not choose to do by yourself."

AMAV: "I really don't understand why you trust the government so much. Would you do anything they ask of you? I mean, you're a clever man and I know that you know that the government is in the pockets of Big Pharma, and you and I both know they make profits unheard of by selling their vaccines; that's why I won't get the shot either."

Me: "I already got the shot, and still I wear a mask as well. Again: that's not for me alone. And what's more: you and I both got vaccinated against small pox, polio and a bunch of other things when we were kids, getting vaccinated isn't special or new. And it's not the government I listen to, but the scientists and researchers; the government has handled this whole thing poorly, especially the messaging. And even if it is the government I listen to, do you not stop when the traffic lights go red? I mean, some rules or mandates or whatever you like to call them, are simply in place to protect our safety and to create a functioning society."

AMAV: "Which scientists do you listen to? The websites I've seen talk about a massive plot to reduce population sizes..."

And there we lose each other. I'm torn, I must admit, because on a basic level I do understand where AMAV's coming from, I just think he's lost himself in a whirlpool of fear-mongering and misinformation from the corporate owned government, mainstream media and alternative media. And I don't know how to bridge the gap between us...


Let's talk about Biden, mandates, reactions, and Orwell....


Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!


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