What is your idea of freedom? For me freedom means I'm FREE to do what I want as long as it harms no one else or their property. That makes me a criminal in the Governments eyes. Are you willing to be a criminal for the sake of freedom? How do you feel about freedom? P.S. I figure with all the laws out there we all are criminals already.
My idea is do what thou wilt at no harm to others. And I mean actual harm, not "OMFG I am so angry at you for having a different opinion than me!" junk. Thaqt is NOT real harm.
Freedom to express my beliefs without fear from government. Freedom to defend (or...at least have my husband defend) my family against harm. Individual choice in the market place--to buy and sell what I want. All those are important to me. Freedom of religion..also very important. I read a story today about a guy who stood on the steps of a mission for the poor--a Christian entity. He burned a Bible and urinated on it and was arrested for "destroying a symbol". I was really shocked there was such a law. I think its unconstitutional.
For me it is the freedom to make decisions for myself, and to reap the harvest of those decisions. The freedom to keep and use my harvest for my own benefit, and to share (or not share) my bountiful harvest with others as I see fit. The freedom to make poor decisions and fail, and to suffer the consequences of my own failure without burdening others. The freedom to accept the gracious offer of help from my neighbor in those bad times, and to offer help to my neighbor in his bad times. I do not need government to force me to do these things, these are the things that good people just do.
There has to be limits to freedom. Freedom is simply the ability whatever you with or to whomever you want without hindrance. This cannot exist simply because the freedom to bring force to bear is countered by the freedom to resist said force. First do no harm is great unless it permits another to do harm while you stand by and watch.
Sure. Harm is where I tie you down on a fire ant hill, put cuts on you, pour honey all over you, and watch the ants eat you alive. Harm is also telling someone that they are nothing but a piece of crap all the time. Harm is that no matter what you do and how you do it it is always wrong and stupid and you must be punished. harm is imposing one's morality on you and forcing you to be something you're not. Harm is somebody throwing a cup of acid on your face. Harm is constant insulting and berating the other person because you don't like their opinions, to both people. Harm is abuse, mental, physical, and emotion. Harm is not letting a person defend themselves from another person attacking them. Harm is being greatly overweight from depression or other medical complications. Harm is ingesting, tobacco, alcohol, and other illicit drugs. Harm is when I don't let you be successful and don't let you take care of yourself and your family because other people deserve the money and the stuff more than you. Harm is denying people's Constitutional rights. Harm is a lot of things, but those seem to be the most common.
Not sure why we need to pick apart the word "harm". You all seem to have some intelligence, I'm pretty sure you get my meaning. If you need to harm someone in self defense well of course I'm ok with that.
This is my obsession. Human freedom. That is the goal. To have the most freedom for the most people, with the fewest restrictions is the ideal.. an ever changing ideal, but one we can do. 1. My rights and freedoms are not absolute but are limited by the rights and freedoms of others. I respect the rights and individual sovereignty of other people. 2. The most basic of human rights are life & property. All other rights stem from these underlying, foundational principles. 3. These rights are not granted by any human institution, but are taken by the people as theirs, inherently, given by god or nature. 4. Human institutions & tyrants may oppress the people & infringe upon their basic rights, but they do so only by oppressive power. The people do not willingly relinquish their rights. 5. Whenever executive power endeavors to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience. (paraphrased from locke) 6. Individual rights are mitigated by the rights of the collective, but they cannot be negated. 7. The individual's rights to life & property are paramount, with only minor limitations by the collective where other's rights are affected. 8. The historical struggle within humanity has been to rescue individual liberty from the control of executive power. Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others ~John Locke Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; Freedom is something that people take and people are as free as they want to be. ~James Arthur Baldwin
Harm can be a bit more complicated then what you mentioned. Laws restricting freedom are often created for the indirect harm inflicted on someone else. For instance--do you have the freedom to allow your own property become over-grown and unmowed? If you live in a community---no you don't. Someone else's property neglected is an eyesore that brings the property value down for the neighbors and makes the city look bad. Thus laws demanding you upkeep your own property. Do you have the freedom to bring your kids up in a filthy home? No...because it is unsafe for your kids. Do you have the freedom to choose NOT to wear the seatbelt? Apparently not---even though it harms no one else. Do we have the freedom to buy and eat what we choose? With government controlled healthcare--probably not. Because harms taxpayers. Do we have the freedom to offend others by stating our political or religious or personal beliefs? Right now yes...but some are perceiving "offending" someone as equal to "harming" someone and thus we may have more stringent hate speech laws.
We have to pick apart the word harm because thats pretty much the crux of this whole theory. What you consider to be harmful may not be what someone else considers harmful. Thats why we have sick perverts out there running around saying we need to lower the age of consent law. The word "intelligent" is subjective as well. Most would consider a Judge to be an intelligent person given their status in society, however, if you haven't noticed we have some Judges out there who don't see what the big deal is about having sex with kids either.
People bring there kids up in filth all the time The seatbelt law is retarded For now you can grow and feed yourself. When they change that I guess we'll just add that to my criminal behavior. If some one is offended by another persons word, that's an easy fix, don't listen. Get away from that person.
+1 Without clear, consistent definitions, & guidelines, we are left to the whims of the definers. Law must be clear, to be effective. Vague, emotional terms have no meaning in real life.
I said SOME INTELLIGENCE, some more than others. Like I said I think you get my meaning. At the same time I do get what you are saying, Different people have different standards. I do believe we need laws but we could probably get by with half as many as we have now.
We probably could. Here is something else to think about though. Lets take the seatbelt law for example. Its one of those laws to where we wonder if its the governments job to protect us from ourselves. Me not wearing my seatbelt isnt hurting anybody but me unless of course I get ejected from the car and my limp body hits an innocent bystander. But here is the problem. If I dont want to wear my seatbelt and I get into a car wreck then I have a higher chance of dying of getting injured and requiring medical attention. Medical attention isn't free. Even with the new mandatory health care laws that 30 or 40 bucks a month most people pay isn't enough to cover the entire cost of repairing me from my car wreck. It will be in the tens of thousands or sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to help me. Who foots the bill for that? Lets say I dont have medical insurance and I get into a bad car accident without my seatbelt. Should I be treated when the ambulance arrives or should they look at me and say too bad sir we are going to let you die because you chose to not wear your seatbelt and you dont have the insurance to pay for your treatment. Or lets say I have a family. I am now dead or unable to continue to work. Who provides for my family now? Government tax dollars will. Thats why we have some of these laws that "protect us from ourselves". Its not so much that the government cares about "you" its the fact that the government knows who has to foot the bill if something happens to you. And since we are a moral country we aren't going to just let somebody lie on the ground and die at a car accident because they chose to not wear their seatbelt and they don't have the money to pay for the medical bills. Now you might be in trouble if you need follow on medical attention due to your accident, but they will patch you up initially even if you can't pay for it.
You can choose the foods that the government allows to be set out for you to buy. They can regulate a business out of business....if the government wants it's product off the shelf. Or they can tax the item to death to make it to price-prohibitive to purchase. Our freedoms are restricted in a underhanded manner all the time.
True. I do my best to recycle items for other uses. I'd like to do more but my wife and I are not exactly on the same page. I also like to barter within my community. For instance I have ducklings about to hatch, a lady in town has some rabbits and homemade jams. She wants four ducklings we are going to make a deal. Her and I are probably breaking some law. Again I'm a criminal. Who are we harming. That said yes I do go to the store.
Freedom is dangerous when in the hands of ignorant people. One is really free only if he has a solid cultural basis and personal experience in life... how many times do i see people coming out with absurdities just because they are free to speak. One of my friends says we should nuke all middle east because they are fuc*ing arabs and negroes smell like sh*t, that's a plain example of misuse of one' personal freedom. I say before jumping to conclusions and consequent actions, one always has to investigate and inform himself, that's an example of good use of freedom.
