The past shows unvaryingly that when a people’s freedom disappears, it goes not with a bang, but in silence amid the comfort of being cared for. That is the dire peril in the present trend toward statism. If freedom is not found accompanied by a willingness to resist, and to reject favors, rather than to give up what is intangible but precarious, it will not long be found at all.-Richard Weaver
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
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Just what is freedom, anyway?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young and naive, I used to pay some attention. I listened to WORDS spoken authoritatively into microphones. To my still-dewy ears and my still-dewy brain, they seemed like the WORD Terrorists. Terrorists of the WORD, twisting meanings to fit agenda or whim.
Is “freedom” a mere buzzword, a holdover from the days of the American Revolution? Or maybe the meaning of the word is ambiguous: each faction is saying something different when they use the word “freedom.”
In Buddhism it is taught that the idea of absolute freedom of choice (i.e. that any human being could be completely free to make any choice) is foolish, because it denies the reality of one's physical needs and circumstances
At its heart freedom is anarchy. It is the state of being completely and utterly free to do as you please. In a society such absolute freedom does not work as some would take actions that harm others. Absolute freedom and anarchy was certainly not what the framers of nations had in mind when they created the different constitutions that set limits both on the people and on the governments
good morning Mike Dude - I will be using your post to try a couple of new blogging ideas
ReplyDeleteAny word can be stripped of its meaning... mindless repetition or abuse come to mind. I believe it was S.I. Hayakawa in his "Language in Thought and Action, that I first ran into the concept that "the map is not the territory".
ReplyDeleteIf freedom has become a "buzzword", the territory it once described has not.
You seem to be in a very contemplative mood this AM. Have at it!
ReplyDeleteyeah - maybe too much coffee
ReplyDeleteConcept of Freedom (open thread)
http://goodstuffsworld.blogspot.com/2014/05/concept-of-freedom-open-thread.html
Come now! Is there ever such a thing as too much coffee?
ReplyDeleteeven though NSFW Fred Dude linked to the open tread post, it was a total flop... will try a boob type question next week
ReplyDeleteIt was a pretty deep question. I looked at it a couple times, but nothing noteworthy came to mind, other than the S.I. Hayakawa thing.
ReplyDelete