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RE: Programmed and Molded to be Cogs in the Machine
I didn’t finish the article yet, but I stopped to submit an idea for your review, which you may deem worthy of immediate attention...
Freedom does not have degrees; only slavery does.
I would never impose myself if I didn’t think this to be an immensely important distinction. Just as there are not degrees of anarchy, there are not degrees of freedom, as the words are synonymous in this context. It’s not a spectrum. If you have 1% slavery, you do not have freedom. Slavery has a spectrum, though, as we well know.
It behooves us to use the word freedom strictly, so as to combat the fallacious and destructive deception of this being a “free country” despite the people being subject to external authority.
Ok, back to the article...
I get what you're saying. But I was saying it in terms of freedom on one side, and slavery on the others. There is no absolute freedom to do whatever you want. You don't have the freedom to fly, turn into a cat, etc. You don't have the moral freedom to murder. There are limits to freedom, and degrees of use between absolute freedom and absolute slavery as ideas.
The term "freedom" implies those natural limitations as part of its definition. "Absolute freedom" is a wholly different concept, namely omnipotence. There are degrees of use regarding slavery, but freedom is either ON or OFF with no gradation in-between. If you are free, no other will is unnaturally imposing a limitation upon the exercise of your own (within the inherent natural/moral limitations, of course).
There's no doubt that less slavery is moving toward freedom, so I get that this is a technical objection more than a practical one. But I feel compelled to note the distinction because we're in a minefield of deception whereby people are desensitized to slavery and it behooves us to get all five alarms blaring at the slightest presence of it.
Let no one be led to believe that a claim to freedom can be made while the smallest shred of coercion is present. If a solitary cent in taxation is demanded, a single permit required, the slightest slap on the wrist imposed for a moral action - you are not free.
Not basically free, not pretty much free, not free at all. Because if the tiniest opening is left in that door, miscreants will wedge a tank through it, and in a generation or two we'll be right back where we started.
True. There is real, realistic freedom on one side. Flying isn't real freedom, only the idea of an absolute. And anything less is not real freedom. But just because we don't have real freedom all the way, doesn't mean there aren't thing we have freedom to do. We may not be totally free in the real ideal sense, but we have freedom of speech more so than a dictatorship where people are killed for speaking out on issues. That would mean there are degrees of applicable freedom, despite the ideal real freedom not being actualized.