Quote:
Originally posted by Webby
I actually like the US, despite all the BS :-) The only reason I would not wish to live there is because there are no freedoms - that is a fallacy.
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I suppose you could live in a country where its illegal to make a statement like "Maybe only 5.5 million jews were killed in the holocaust".
Of course, in the past two centuries what people call "freedom" has spread over much of the globe. While in 1790 there were less representative governments than one could count on one hand, today there are five dozen or more. "Freedom", what one may term consensual government has spread so fast and furious that it makes little sense for Americans to speak of American freedom anymore. Though in the sense that it has a long unbroken tradition of such, it may still be said - though it will not by me.
I believe that the US and Switzerland are the only countries with an unbroken two hundred year long tradition of democracy. Interestingly, the Swiss constitution was influenced by the US constitution. Today the freedom that is enjoyed by Americans, Canadians, the Swiss, the Spanish, Austrians, Austalians, Jamaicans and Japanese is relatively similar.
Fallacy? No one is free. "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains". Laws that are meant to protect one group of people actually diminish the freedom of others. A great conundrum. However lawlessness is worst most of us would agree.