henry quirk wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:49 pm
It's inevitable: man must be,
is, free...he fights for it, dreams of it, lives it as he can.
I know you'd like that to be true, Henry, but it just isn't. Even though who talk the most about liberty and freedom, don't really want freedom, and if true freedom were forced on them, they would hate it.
There is reason most people hate freedom. George Bernard Shaw said it most succinctly, "liberty means responsibility, that's why most men dread it." H.L. Mencken said it another way:
The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.
Those who claim to want freedom, with rare exception, have no idea what it is. The truth is, no matter how much they claim to want freedom, what they really embrace is slavery, because they are not willing to pay the price of freedom.
From :
Freedom Not For Everyone:
Most Do Not Want To Be Free
What most people want is not freedom. What most people want is security, safety, guarantees, protection from change, and comfort. Most have no confidence in their own ability to live their lives successfully. For the truly free, there are no guarantees in life, and one must face every risk on their own, either learning how to deal with them, or suffering the consequences. For the truly free, nothing is provided and everything must be acquired or achieved by one's own effort. For those who love freedom, these are freedom's virtues, but for most people, the very virtues of freedom are a source of terror.
Most people will not choose to be free because the collectivists and statists are offering exactly what most people desire. Where freedom offers responsibility, the state offers relief from that responsibility. "Don't worry about making provisions for your old age, the state will take care of it." Where freedom offers the reality of risk and danger, the state offers guarantees of safety. "Don't worry about natural disasters, the government will take care of everything and protect you from them. Don't worry about the dangers of the world, the government will pass laws that will make everything safe, your job, your food, your medicine, even driving your car."
How Slavery Is Put Over
It's not called slavery, it's called, "social order," when individuals are forced to comply with rules made by others for the benefit of others. It begins small. It's only a little oppression, but it's, "for a good cause," but once a principle is violated, whatever the justification, there is never a limit to that violation. Once the the freedom principle is violated, there is no end of the restrictions and demands on one's choices and life that will follow.
What begins as, "we cannot allow people to starve," ends as, "we cannot allow people to be uneducated, not have good housing, be poor in their old age, not have health care, not have a job, not be protected from scurrilous marketers, not be "safe" on the highway, business, homes, bathrooms, or ... (supply your favorite thing no one should have to go without, whether they earn it or not). You can have all of these things and more, at least until the slaves who are supplying them realize they are slaves; you can have them, but you cannot have them and freedom too.
The Price Of Freedom
The price of freedom is not having all those things. It is the price most are unwilling to pay. It means not having the government supply your education, health care, expensive drugs, and guaranteed retirement income. It means not being guaranteed no one will ever say something mean to or about you. It means there are no guarantees. It means you will live in a world of danger, temptation, and risks. It means you will be responsible for every aspect of your own life from the time you reach adulthood until you die. It means, if you mess up your life, you and only you will suffer the consequences.
That is the price of freedom. It is the price most people are not willing to pay.