problems of liberty

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problems of liberty Anonymous 02/08/18 (Thu) 08:22:46 No.76009

Does it bother anyone else that freedom is normally popular only as a slogan and only rarely as a real existing condition of human organization?

That is, people often pass up the opportunity for meaningful freedom simply because it lacks the immediate short-term benefits of another system even though such benefits could be attained relatively easily if not for the paradoxical lack of supporters. A concrete example being the seeming acceptance for online platforms and discussion boards controlled by hotpockets and rulefags which, despite their inability to stop users from leaving, seem to continue existing by sheer inertia and because "that's where all the traffic is."

If the majority of humanity finds itself in a natural state of submission to authority, why support liberty and freedom? Why not seek power for oneself or at least a benevolent form of dictatorship?

Anonymous 02/08/18 (Thu) 11:02:00 No.76010

Did you get banned from a board or something when you came across this "epiphany"?

Regardless of your bizarre example it is true that liberty is a popular slogan but it is not because it is meaningless or unable to be realized but merely because it is the most desired state humans want to achieve. Liberty does not mean that absence of any restrictions on human action but the fewest restrictions because total freedom for a person to do as he pleases will inevitably infringe on another person, e.g. the freedom for a person to take what he pleases will infringe on another person's freedom to the fruits of his toil. However, it does not reduce liberty for someone to willingly submit themselves to the governance of another person, it does not reduce a Christian's freedom to follow the teachings of a Church even if that must necessitate the reduction in his freedom of action nor does it a person who frequents a board with strict rules prohibiting shitposting. Liberty is the maximization of the freedom of action for all people.

>If the majority of humanity finds itself in a natural state of submission to authority, why support liberty and freedom? Why not seek power for oneself or at least a benevolent form of dictatorship?

Submission to authority doesn't necessitate a lack of liberty, I submit to the authority of a professor in a classroom, my manager at my part-time job, and to the mods of the boards and forums I use but I don't find my liberty reduced, without authority and rules in those spheres human co-operation could not of developed and I would of been worse off. When submission is gained to authority is gained with violence or threat of violence, however, is when liberty is reduced. I will not give up on liberty and sell myself to slavery just because it is hard, in fact because it is hard to achieve liberty it only makes me desire it even more dearly.

Anonymous 02/08/18 (Thu) 17:57:47 No.76024

>>76010

>Did you get banned from a board or something when you came across this "epiphany"?

No, but I think about it when I see people complain about being banned/censored on a board but when their ban expires they willingly choose to return. It's always irritated me that a majority of people, when faced with some kind of abuse of power, shrug their goddamned shoulders and continue on as if nothing can be done. Does this not bother anyone else?

>without authority and rules in those spheres human co-operation could not of developed and I would of been worse off.

I understand and agree with your point. But the fact is that almost nowhere are these rules applied fairly and objectively. Almost always the people who enforce those rules are petty, authoritarian, and biased. The rules and authority are just a means for controlling people and not for maintaining meaningful exchanges.