Quote:
Originally posted by Amputate Your Head
[B]
sure.... welcome to being free.
The popular misconception is that "freedom" means "the gravy train". Who the hell ever said anything was gonna be easy? Point is, you have that option.
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I wasn't suggesting that it be 'gravy train'. I think that my and your definition of freedom may differ somewhat.
To me, 'freedom' means the ability to pursue the goals I wish to persue without limits. Irrespective of political systems, there are practical limits on my freedom that I'm working to overcome... I work today to earn so that tomorrow I'll have the scratch to no longer HAVE to work. Knowing that my needs will be provided for to an acceptable comfort level even should I decide to totally withdraw from the workforce (to go back to school, say, or to simply walk the earth and absorb its marvels), that to me would be a high degree of freedom.
My concept of freedom isn't a state of 'being free' or 'being unfree' like what some people here seem to fixate on. I look at it from the 'pyramid of needs' perspective... on the lowest levels your food, clothing, shelter and air, moving with more esoteric needs being met as you move on up. The higher up the pyramid you reach, the more freedom you've likely attained... there isn't much freedom in being a wageslave for the basics of life, whereas the people who can contemplate philosophies and spiritual aspects of life obviously are freed from those more base requirements.
I'd consider your description of freedom more as 'liberty', being the limits on your freedom placed on you by other people, as opposed to basic realities of life. Liberty is being able to choose what I want for dinner, freedom would be the ability to survive without food entirely if I so chose.
Yeah, okay, it's pretty abstract. It's 8am here and I reserve the freedom to be a bit random in my observations at this hour of the morning.
