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Episode-133- TSP Rewind – Do People Really Want Freedom — 1 Comment

  1. “Freedom” is understood by most people to be in the context of our biological life. But biological life is far from being “totally free!” We have to keep this conflict of contexts in mind when we think or talk about freedom.

    Freedoms in biological societies are usually spoken of as “rights.” That’s because anyone can use force to kill your body. So all you can really demand is the right to not be killed. Amazingly, this is far from an acceptable freedom in many places on Earth. This has to do with the perceived power that is derived from the ability to take another’s life. This is the “power” of the insane.

    “Victimless” crimes: These can range from irrational moral dictates to somewhat reasonable limitations on behavior that have been known to cause social problems. Drug use leading to addiction or intoxication is often seen as something worth preventing. Whether making it “illegal” is the best way to accomplish that is arguable. Didn’t really work for alcohol!

    Social confusions about freedom arise from the ambiguities of biological life. It puts “costs” on things that only make sense in the context of biology. They don’t make sense in the context of thought. Why shouldn’t we be able to think and speak as we wish? We have the current hubbub about “hate speech.” But earlier in history it was a problem of power, of protecting the power held by irrational people for irrational reasons. That kind of insanity can always reappear among the “leaders” in society, no matter what principles it was built on. Thus, any level of freedom, or list of rights, must be constantly defended. And the only better solution is to eliminate insanity in ourselves and our leaders, thus making them (and us) into real leaders.

    Sure there are lots of people who would prefer to be slaves (“consumers”). It is a “comfortable” and “secure” way to live. Many governments and corporations love it, as it makes you much more predictable and compliant. It’s a dead-end street, but most don’t even realize that. They think they only live once anyway. That’s the basic biological confusion!