Freedom, Liberty, Rights, Privileges
Freedom is a word that gets tossed around haphazardly, especially in this country - USA. But what does it really mean to be 'free'? As you might have guessed, I have several thoughts on the subject.
THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT ONES OWN FREEDOM OF AUTONOMY IS TO ALWAYS ADVOCATE FOR THE FREEDOM OF OTHERS TO HAVE THE SAME.
When we attempt to deny basic personal freedoms to anyone, we open the door to having our own freedoms infringed upon.
I recently watched the George Carlin special "It's bad for you" on Netflix where he states, "...rights aren’t rights if someone can take ’em away. They’re privileges, that’s all we’ve ever had in this country, is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter."
As an example of this, Carlin cites the interment of Japanese-Americans in 1942. "In 1942, there were a 110,000 Japanese American citizens in good standing, law-abiding people, who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That’s all they did wrong. They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had, “right this way” – into the internment camps. Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took ’em away."
You can read the full transcript of Carlin's segment here. He makes several valid points despite suggesting we should shoot people we don't agree with. This was filmed in 2008. Carlin was being sarcastic obviously since earlier in the bit he had joked that the right to food and shelter was more logical than the right to have a gun, "...so you can get drunk on Sunday night and kill your girlfriend’s parents."
Actor George Takei, known for Star Trek, Heroes, and a crap ton of other work, spent time in an interment camp as a child with his family. He recently produced a musical titled "Allegiance" which tells his story, shining a spotlight on yet another shameful part of American History.
The 'land of the free' is stained with the blood of genocide, slavery, forced internment, inequality, hate crimes, and corruption. Of course that is just the stuff we know about.
So let's start with the ideal of Liberty.
To me, liberty is the freedom to do anything I choose so long as I do no harm to anything or anyone but myself. Self-defense being the key exception. Yet it is presently 'against the law' to ride in a car without wearing a seat-belt, to ride a motorcycle without wearing a helmet, to cross the street against the light or outside of the crosswalk, to name a few.
You may say, well, those things are 'for your own safety' as well as reducing the burden of medical costs incurred by reckless behavior that may or may not have to be picked up by the hospital due to your lack of insurance. Which then of course increases the trickle down cost to everyone else.
Okay, whoa, first of all - there is a big can of worms right there so let's table the discussion of a civilized societies duty to care for its own. Second of all, I am simply attempting to define personal freedom as a concept.
Personal Autonomy, essentially, means to me that I should, if I were truly free, be able to ingest any substance, run out into traffic, alter my own body with tattoos, piercings, surgery, even abortion, (see self-defense) because my body, my rules. I should also be able to take my own life or ask someone to assist me in taking my own life, that someone then having the freedom to decline or to not be prosecuted for saying yes.
Yet suicide is a technically a crime. Assisted Suicide for terminal ill people is only legal in a few states. If someone knows that you are considering killing yourself they can call the police and the courts will attempt to stop you. They will also arrest anyone who tries to help you. Did you know that? I am not advocating, but at the very least those who are terminally ill and either already suffering or will be eventually, should have the right and means to end their own misery humanely on their own terms.
Other freedoms that I consider subjective - like having guns, owning property, owning pets, eating animals, going to school, speaking out against the government or even just the freedom to spout hate and insults to anyone anywhere, are each blogs in and of themselves, so I won't get into those here - but I will touch them all eventually. Don't even get me started on religion. 😂
Suffice to say, Carlin was correct in his assessment of our so called rights. As a society, a species even, we owe it to future generations to stand up the erosion of our autonomy.
When you hear someone (or even yourself) saying things like, "so and so group or individuals should not be allowed to - insert restriction of freedom here - " Ask them, or ask yourself, first and foremost is literal harm being caused by this? Is this a freedom that you personally enjoy yet feel determined to prevent some other group the same liberty?
Does same sex marriage hurt anyone? Does my not wearing a seat belt hurt you? If your sick and dying loved one wants to end it all now rather than suffer the pain of a slow death, who are you to deny them that privilege?
Now I know what you are going to say - abortion - that harms the fetus technically. Which is why I call it self-defense. Giving birth, even just carrying a fetus to term, can, in some cases be life threatening. And in the case of rape, the psychological toll of raising a reminder of that humiliation and degradation amounts to torture in my book.
Personally I think there are too many people sucking the life out of the planet as it is. And choosing to not add to that future burden for whatever reason makes you a hero in my mind. You might have the means to care for many kids and give them everything. But in 20 years they will all need housing, and begin driving, and want jobs, then they will have kids of their own. It is a never-ending cycle and the reason we neuter our pets.
Please think before you breed.
What about drugs and alcohol? Does partaking hurt anyone but the user? Addiction may lead to criminal acts and family drama, even health issues, but only because we are ignoring what makes an addict in the first place.
The hit show Sense8 streaming on Netflix had a great line about addiction, "It’s not the drugs that make a drug addict, it’s the need to escape reality." Perhaps if reality were not so fraught with arbitrary rules and an insane need to divide and label us, folks would go back to getting high for the fun of it with friends, to party once in a while, rather than making the drugs their only way to escape a society completely out of touch with its own bullshit.
Something to think about at the very least.
As a parting thought - consider all the things that you personally are not allowed to do (for your own good) that you don't even mind because you wouldn't want to do them anyway, despite technically being impediments to your own personal autonomy. Then tell me in the comments all the ways you feel those rules benefit society. Perhaps then we can come up with logical solutions that offer some middle ground without becoming more accustomed to our ever shrinking list of 'freedoms'.
PS. Please do not ever resort to violence over a difference of opinion. Cut them with your wit. Bite them with your sarcasm, but please save the blood letting for self-defense against your own personal harm - or in the defense of others.
Hugs and Kisses.
Peace and Tranquility.
~Nina99
THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT ONES OWN FREEDOM OF AUTONOMY IS TO ALWAYS ADVOCATE FOR THE FREEDOM OF OTHERS TO HAVE THE SAME.
When we attempt to deny basic personal freedoms to anyone, we open the door to having our own freedoms infringed upon.
I recently watched the George Carlin special "It's bad for you" on Netflix where he states, "...rights aren’t rights if someone can take ’em away. They’re privileges, that’s all we’ve ever had in this country, is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter."
As an example of this, Carlin cites the interment of Japanese-Americans in 1942. "In 1942, there were a 110,000 Japanese American citizens in good standing, law-abiding people, who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That’s all they did wrong. They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had, “right this way” – into the internment camps. Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took ’em away."
You can read the full transcript of Carlin's segment here. He makes several valid points despite suggesting we should shoot people we don't agree with. This was filmed in 2008. Carlin was being sarcastic obviously since earlier in the bit he had joked that the right to food and shelter was more logical than the right to have a gun, "...so you can get drunk on Sunday night and kill your girlfriend’s parents."
Actor George Takei, known for Star Trek, Heroes, and a crap ton of other work, spent time in an interment camp as a child with his family. He recently produced a musical titled "Allegiance" which tells his story, shining a spotlight on yet another shameful part of American History.
The 'land of the free' is stained with the blood of genocide, slavery, forced internment, inequality, hate crimes, and corruption. Of course that is just the stuff we know about.
So let's start with the ideal of Liberty.
To me, liberty is the freedom to do anything I choose so long as I do no harm to anything or anyone but myself. Self-defense being the key exception. Yet it is presently 'against the law' to ride in a car without wearing a seat-belt, to ride a motorcycle without wearing a helmet, to cross the street against the light or outside of the crosswalk, to name a few.
You may say, well, those things are 'for your own safety' as well as reducing the burden of medical costs incurred by reckless behavior that may or may not have to be picked up by the hospital due to your lack of insurance. Which then of course increases the trickle down cost to everyone else.
Okay, whoa, first of all - there is a big can of worms right there so let's table the discussion of a civilized societies duty to care for its own. Second of all, I am simply attempting to define personal freedom as a concept.
Personal Autonomy, essentially, means to me that I should, if I were truly free, be able to ingest any substance, run out into traffic, alter my own body with tattoos, piercings, surgery, even abortion, (see self-defense) because my body, my rules. I should also be able to take my own life or ask someone to assist me in taking my own life, that someone then having the freedom to decline or to not be prosecuted for saying yes.
Yet suicide is a technically a crime. Assisted Suicide for terminal ill people is only legal in a few states. If someone knows that you are considering killing yourself they can call the police and the courts will attempt to stop you. They will also arrest anyone who tries to help you. Did you know that? I am not advocating, but at the very least those who are terminally ill and either already suffering or will be eventually, should have the right and means to end their own misery humanely on their own terms.
Other freedoms that I consider subjective - like having guns, owning property, owning pets, eating animals, going to school, speaking out against the government or even just the freedom to spout hate and insults to anyone anywhere, are each blogs in and of themselves, so I won't get into those here - but I will touch them all eventually. Don't even get me started on religion. 😂
Suffice to say, Carlin was correct in his assessment of our so called rights. As a society, a species even, we owe it to future generations to stand up the erosion of our autonomy.
When you hear someone (or even yourself) saying things like, "so and so group or individuals should not be allowed to - insert restriction of freedom here - " Ask them, or ask yourself, first and foremost is literal harm being caused by this? Is this a freedom that you personally enjoy yet feel determined to prevent some other group the same liberty?
Does same sex marriage hurt anyone? Does my not wearing a seat belt hurt you? If your sick and dying loved one wants to end it all now rather than suffer the pain of a slow death, who are you to deny them that privilege?
Now I know what you are going to say - abortion - that harms the fetus technically. Which is why I call it self-defense. Giving birth, even just carrying a fetus to term, can, in some cases be life threatening. And in the case of rape, the psychological toll of raising a reminder of that humiliation and degradation amounts to torture in my book.
Personally I think there are too many people sucking the life out of the planet as it is. And choosing to not add to that future burden for whatever reason makes you a hero in my mind. You might have the means to care for many kids and give them everything. But in 20 years they will all need housing, and begin driving, and want jobs, then they will have kids of their own. It is a never-ending cycle and the reason we neuter our pets.
Please think before you breed.
What about drugs and alcohol? Does partaking hurt anyone but the user? Addiction may lead to criminal acts and family drama, even health issues, but only because we are ignoring what makes an addict in the first place.
The hit show Sense8 streaming on Netflix had a great line about addiction, "It’s not the drugs that make a drug addict, it’s the need to escape reality." Perhaps if reality were not so fraught with arbitrary rules and an insane need to divide and label us, folks would go back to getting high for the fun of it with friends, to party once in a while, rather than making the drugs their only way to escape a society completely out of touch with its own bullshit.
Something to think about at the very least.
As a parting thought - consider all the things that you personally are not allowed to do (for your own good) that you don't even mind because you wouldn't want to do them anyway, despite technically being impediments to your own personal autonomy. Then tell me in the comments all the ways you feel those rules benefit society. Perhaps then we can come up with logical solutions that offer some middle ground without becoming more accustomed to our ever shrinking list of 'freedoms'.
PS. Please do not ever resort to violence over a difference of opinion. Cut them with your wit. Bite them with your sarcasm, but please save the blood letting for self-defense against your own personal harm - or in the defense of others.
Hugs and Kisses.
Peace and Tranquility.
~Nina99
The science of rights: http://www.bookdaily.com/book/3341166/scientific-proof-of-our-unalienable-rights-a-road-to-utopia
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