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The gilded cage metaphor is interesting for it gets at a truth that we'll come back to. Let's not narrow freedom down to simply political means and ends but extend the concept. The idea that one can be free simply when desire meets our personal ambitions is interesting if hard to nail down. When I give a bum, sitting on a heated vent, a dollar have I set them free. They may be more free than most already. Everyone is tied down in life. We all like to pretend (think?) we are free to do as we please but if you did so you'd soon find yourself alone.
Class, wealth, power, authority, ideology, religion, culture, security, all exert pressure on our freedoms or allow freedom. So how can we ever claim freedom exists, it brings us back to the positive versus the negative freedom question. Do some people have more freedom than others? If they do why?
The gilded cage metaphor is interesting for it gets at a truth that we'll come back to. Let's not narrow freedom down to simply political means and ends but extend the concept. The idea that one can be free simply when desire meets our personal ambitions is interesting if hard to nail down. When I give a bum, sitting on a heated vent, a dollar have I set them free. They may be more free than most already. Everyone is tied down in life. We all like to pretend (think?) we are free to do as we please but if you did so you'd soon find yourself alone.
Class, wealth, power, authority, ideology, religion, culture, security, all exert pressure on our freedoms or allow freedom. So how can we ever claim freedom exists, it brings us back to the positive versus the negative freedom question. Do some people have more freedom than others? If they do why?
So, is your interest, in this thread, to talk about the general aspects of freedom? Or the negative/positive freedom characterization? I'm interested in discussing either.
While reading another thread on which I'll comment later it occurred to me that there is a place in which freedom can be [sorta] real? Any guesses.
... and even after death you are not truly free as your deity will dictate what you can and can't do, think or feel.
While I consider [political or societal] freedom an abstract concept in need of context and explanation - while reading the 'transgender' thread it occurred to me there are other types of freedom. One is the fact a person online can hate, or find other people so different, their reaction is one of criticism. Imagine life lived so narrowly free that you possess the ability to say that another is aberrant [choose your pejorative]. Next thought was can we live freely in our minds? Or are we similar to computers in that our program is a given and our conscious is a reflection only of our unconscious. That is all that came before. My challenge to those who think that sexuality is a choice, orientation that is, is to imagine they are different. Since it is only in your mind and since we all assume freedom is real, can we think in that manner. I cannot for instance imagine being a woman for not only is the biology different but all options are different. But a trans person does. What thinks thou.
How though does a social construct come to be? What factors create any particular society? Eskimos and Pygmies surely construct a different world? And back OT, if societies are socially constructed whither freedom? [book below is worth your time if topic interests you]
"Politics, ideology, and power matter more than metaphysics to most advocates of construction analyses of social and cultural phenomena. Talk of construction tends to undermine the authority of knowledge and categorization. It challenges complacent assumptions about the inevitability of what we have found out or our present ways of doing things." Ian Hacking 'The Social Construction of What'
'Freedom' is heard often: as an ideal, a goal, sometimes apology. Some claim they represent freedom and others are presumably opposed to freedom. Certain ideas make freedom possible while others do not. So what is freedom? Is it just a word that changes meaning dependent on the user or use? Or is there a real thing called freedom?
...Freedom, to me, means to be able, willing and ready to live my life without the constraints of marriage or religion. Living one's life by the Golden Rule, brings individual freedom and everyone wins....
...Freedom, to me, means to be able, willing and ready to live my life without the constraints of marriage or religion. Living one's life by the Golden Rule, brings individual freedom and everyone wins....
While the Golden rule is an excellent concept, in life we do not find it very often. Think only of intolerance based on personal or religious convictions.
Freedom is the gilded cage, but is it so bad?
True freedom can only be achieved when you are alone. The moment you introduce a second person into the mix freedoms are immediately restricted. The first person does not have the right to kill the second person or visa versa. The more civilized you become the more freedoms you sacrifice.
So the question becomes what freedoms are we willing to curb and which ones are we not willing to sacrifice, and that will tell us what kind of society we want.
Freedom is the inalienable right to smoke a joint in the pursuit of happiness.
Anyone that thinks any U.S. citizens are free with a $17 trillion national debt, is as stupid as politicians want them to be.
Freedom is the inalienable right to smoke a joint in the pursuit of happiness.
Anyone that thinks any U.S. citizens are free with a $17 trillion national debt, is as stupid as politicians want them to be.
The nation's debt has been reduced by half since Obama was elected, does that mean our freedom is only reduced by some intangible amount now?