Best thread in a long, long time at FreeRepublic

[patrice]

14. There are too many blind assumptions about what constitutes freedom. Simplistic minds

probably tend to think of it as 0 consequences and, yet, they are also known to say things about how, "Freedom isn't free", which IS true, but then they conceive of the price of freedom ONLY in terms of blood, preferably someone else's, which in some instances is also more or less true, but the difference between those instances in which that may be true and those instances when oppression is the more likely result of that blood is extremely important to the freedom of everyone.

All of that is very concerning in contexts in which authentic understanding of what constitutes rational thought is completely missing and people operate most of the time under the principle that just saying something makes it so (because they themselves have known little or nothing but corporate propaganda).

The price of freedom is responsibility, ongoing, rational, honest, diligent, work-wo/manly commitment to what happens ALL of the time, NOT just after the fact. After "the horse is out of the barn", when it's too late to figure out whether whoever is headed at you, armed to the teeth is the oppressor or not and by how much, let alone how one's own behaviors have contributed to oppressing one's self by limiting one's choices until they lead to that bloody moment, in which no choices are left for anyone.

This means that people should recognize that if you NEED a gun to protect your home from thieves or criminals, it's already too late, so you should accept your responsibilities for social and economic justice BEFORE you get to that moment, which will result not only in fewer bad people trying to take your stuff, but also an increased probability that if anyone does try to assault your castle, they are more likely people who HAVE chosen to do that and therefore deserve to be apprehended and brought to justice. That's another important difference, because it reduces the inertia of the cycles of injustice that involve people who WOULD choose otherwise (i.e. choose not to be thieving your property) if they had had more chances not to all along and separating THOSE sheep from the goats reduces the strength of the cycles that repeat, repeat, repeat, until it's too late and a bunch of people lie bleeding and dying for something that never had a chance of being authentic freedom in the first place.

None of that can happen when chaos reigns and no one can identify their functional choices (all along, throughout all of the processes) well enough to adapt their own trajectory themselves, as individuals, and violence creates chaos, so it is much more likely that the results of violence are only more privilege, not freedom.