Quote:
Originally posted by Yorick:
To those who cherish freedom:
It seems your desire for freedom is selective.
What about freedom from fear? Freedom from being shot? Freedom from losing your possessions through theft? You are not free. You are held to ransom by the threat of violence, you are imprisoned by the past, you are chained to paying for home insurance, and medical insurance.
Debt is the slavery of the West, and fear is a chain of greater strength than iron.
To gain freedoms for society at all, you have to restrict an individuals freedom.
That is what LAW is. Restrictions on an individuals behaviour so society can live with some freedom from fear.
I see chants of freedom, which are in reality cries for imprisonment.
Free yourselves. Ban the gun. Allow cameras on highways and in plazas. Restrict the freedoms of those who would harm so those who are innocent may live freely.
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Um... I've posted on this before. The extrapolation ad nauseum of what your "freedom" means has to end somewhere. "Freedom to not have your feelings hurt" is certainly a place where your freedom has ended, as that would give you too much power to limit the freedom of OTHERS (e.g. by defining your sensitivities to be extreme). The notion of "freedom" revolves around physical, tangible (perhaps even extending into economic) chains people put on each other. Your guaranteed freedom extends to protect you (ideally) from having another person hit you. But, it doesn't extend so far as to prohibit them from telling you what they think of you, generally. When it comes to your emotions, any harm inflicted is based on a reasonable person standard. "Reasonable people" living in the US are not so scared of guns that the possession of guns rises to any legally-prohibited offensive level.
I know someone can interpret this in a silly fashion, and point "well, what if you're old and sick and they yell at you and cause a heart attack blah blah blah flur snur flur snur." But, being reasonable, I'm sure you get my point.
