Yesterday I made a post on Facebook about government and freedom and got an interesting response so I just posted a flurry of status updates in response to that response on Facebook about freedom and government and figured I might as well share here as well.
I'm sorry to inform you all that I guess it seems I am part of the propaganda...
I made a post yesterday asking people to pick between freedom or government and one of the people said this.
"Government.
Freedoms an illusion anyway. Way to be part of the propaganda, Paul. 😒"
There were 14 comments all together and this person was the only one who picked government over freedom.
I did offer a middle ground and there were a few others who I think picked a minarchist/libertarian/limited/constitutional government sort of middle ground.
But the vast majority picked freedom.
So... I'd say it was probably around 10-1 with freedom winning overwhelming and while I do have a decent amount of similar minded friends I think the majority of people on my friends list probably still vote and believe in government.
What I'm trying to say is I don't think my page is an echo chamber in that sense.
And... It's kind of telling that only 1 person was brave enough to say they pick government over freedom when government is an institution which dominates most of the whole world and which most people operate under and are beholden to.
Why aren't there more people willing to stand up and defend government? Maybe because it's really difficult to justify and defend when you get deep down into the details...?
It won't be long before we can point to examples like what the Nazi's did in WW2 with the concentration camps, OR... Any other number of governments throughout history who have done similar.
Then I'm sure some will be like, well not that government! Or those governments! My government isn't like that! Though... It might be actually and it might only be a matter of time as government seems to breed corruption and immorality.
I asked this person to clarify what they meant, but they have not responded yet and I doubt they will.
It also looks like I was unfriended by her, I don't remember talking with this person before, but her profile pic/name looks kind of familiar and I'm pretty sure she unfriended me because we have a lot of mutual friends.
So... I guess just asking people whether they prefer freedom or government (or something in between) is tantamount to being part of the "propaganda" and deserving of being possibly unfriended and possibly ignored as well?
Wow... Who knew that just asking a simple genuine question was propaganda and something to get so perturbed over.
I wonder who is behind this anarchist propaganda that I am unwittingly spreading?
To be fair, I do believe in freedom myself so I do admit some degree of bias there, however I do feel like I am decently open minded to new information and... I don't see how genuinely asking a question of people is propaganda.
That person also said they think that freedom is an illusion... Which is possible, I don't know the whole truth of the universe... Yet... I wonder what kind of world it must be like to live in where you believe the inherent human right of freedom which is etymologically linked to "love" is an illusion, but somehow the manipulative violent force and control of government is not or is more preferable...?
I dunno, I'm at a lack of words here which doesn't happen that often, and I've only met a few people in my life who believe in government so strongly.
I'm not trying to be mean to this person, but how do you get so detached from your own intrinsic spirit that you think other people have more a claim to your own life than you do?
How do you become so faithful and loyal to an external group of people who based on all the available evidence don't care about you and are preying on you and using you like a tool to enrich themselves?
And then on top of all that, you slander someone who is trying to ask philosophical questions about the root of so much corruption and injustice in the world?
sigh...
I'ma leave you all with a quote from someone who survived the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, what do you think he thinks about government and freedom...?
I think he would rather be free than put in concentration camps by government. I think most people would...?
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
This made me cry...
"...the story of the young woman whose death I witnessed in a concentration camp. It is a simple story. There is little to tell and it may sound as if I had invented it; but to me it seems like a poem. This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. "I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard," she told me. "In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously." Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, "This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness." Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. "I often talk to this tree," she said to me. I was startled and didn't quite know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously I asked her if the tree replied. "Yes." What did it say to her? She answered, "It said to me, 'I am here — I am here — I am life, eternal life.'"
What if the Nazi's never lost the war, they just had to move?
What if there are still concentration camps today in this day and age, yet they just look different now?
What if... Our governments are not much different?
What if a similar amount of innocent people in the Middle East have been murdered by our current governments as Hitler and the Nazi's have killed of the Jews in WW2?
What if so many people look back in horror, yet fail to see their own political leaders as doing the same kinds of or very similar things today?
What if support of government, is the soil and breeding ground so to speak for incredible suffering and misery to grow?
What if.... You do see and notice all this, but also see and notice that so few others seem to see and notice or care about these same things...?
If you believe in and support government, are you not sort of essentially saying that you think your way of looking at the world is better than others and that it should be forced upon others by violence?