Theory #3: Freedom from "Freedom from"
Dear four readers,
Today I will try to show how society needs to let me play as much poker, drink as much alcohol, smoke as much marijuana, and download as much pornography as my heart may or may not theoretically desire.
Let’s be clear. I am not saying this because of any peripheral enjoyment I might inadvertently abstract from such small endeavors. Quite the opposite, I am fighting for the good of society.
Stick with me while I try to tie this to poker.
As someone who lives here pointed out last month, people are getting better at playing poker on the Internet. The change has been gradual, but you just don’t see as many of those awful players who call every hand and try and win every pot by raising with bad hands.
As a group, we have all gradually improved. Good for us.
Cue the governments.
That’s right, just when we all stop playing like idiots and start getting good at poker, governments step in to protect us from our own stupidity. Western Civilization is all about freedom, and we clearly need to be freed from the things in life that lead us to making dumb decisions.
I remember being introduced to the “freedom from” argument in university. People who believe government should play a role in limiting our own choices argue they are protecting our freedom rather impeding it. They say we need freedom from bad things in order to be in a position to use our freedom to make good decisions.
This is mostly semantics and comes right down to an age old question of how much that government should govern over our own liberties. This is a great big debate that giant brains have been going at for centuries. You can go here, here, here, or even here if you want more coverage. A web site based on two sentence philosophies can only go so far.
My 2 cents (Canadian) is simple. I believe that people and, in turn, societies evolve. I believe that happens as a result of all of us exercising our freedom. We all make decisions and, ever so slowly, we learn from them.
Many people like to roll their eyes at societies that are based on freedom. North America and Western Europe have more than their share of shameful stories to tell. However, if you compare our society to all of the other societies in history, rather than just to what you picture society should be, I think you have to conclude that we are getting better and better.
If we could ask people from the crusades, medieval times, Roman times, the Dark Ages, the so-called Enlightenment, etc, I have to think they would be pretty impressed with what we have going on here. Ever so gradually base issues like racism show gradual improvement. Think back 20 years to apartheid in South Africa. Think back 40 years to the US. Think back to 2004 when we all sucked at poker. We still have all kinds of problems, in no small part because we have been picking fights with backward governments that don't let their people have a lot of freedom. One day long after we’re dead we might just get there.
Even Hobbes (referenced above) would have to conclude that today’s “state of nature” would be at least 30% less nasty, 45% less brutish, and we already know that today’s life is nowhere near as short. It may even be too damn long.
When people are free to make choices, they make all kinds of different ones, and we gradually learn from them together. When people aren’t free to make choices, nobody learns anything, because the whole idea is to protect that status quo. Screw the status quo.
I am not saying we will all make good decisions. A lot of us will make horrible decisions. That’s kind of the point.
And so therein lies Theory # 3 of the Book of Mark: People, including me, should be free to make their own really stupid decisions.
The truth is, playing poker, drinking profusely, smoking up and downloading porn may not be good for me, but it is still good for society to let me do it. Don’t worry about me, I’m a team player. I don’t mind doing my part.
Just try and learn from my stupidity, will ya?
Today I will try to show how society needs to let me play as much poker, drink as much alcohol, smoke as much marijuana, and download as much pornography as my heart may or may not theoretically desire.
Let’s be clear. I am not saying this because of any peripheral enjoyment I might inadvertently abstract from such small endeavors. Quite the opposite, I am fighting for the good of society.
Stick with me while I try to tie this to poker.
As someone who lives here pointed out last month, people are getting better at playing poker on the Internet. The change has been gradual, but you just don’t see as many of those awful players who call every hand and try and win every pot by raising with bad hands.
As a group, we have all gradually improved. Good for us.
Cue the governments.
That’s right, just when we all stop playing like idiots and start getting good at poker, governments step in to protect us from our own stupidity. Western Civilization is all about freedom, and we clearly need to be freed from the things in life that lead us to making dumb decisions.
I remember being introduced to the “freedom from” argument in university. People who believe government should play a role in limiting our own choices argue they are protecting our freedom rather impeding it. They say we need freedom from bad things in order to be in a position to use our freedom to make good decisions.
This is mostly semantics and comes right down to an age old question of how much that government should govern over our own liberties. This is a great big debate that giant brains have been going at for centuries. You can go here, here, here, or even here if you want more coverage. A web site based on two sentence philosophies can only go so far.
My 2 cents (Canadian) is simple. I believe that people and, in turn, societies evolve. I believe that happens as a result of all of us exercising our freedom. We all make decisions and, ever so slowly, we learn from them.
Many people like to roll their eyes at societies that are based on freedom. North America and Western Europe have more than their share of shameful stories to tell. However, if you compare our society to all of the other societies in history, rather than just to what you picture society should be, I think you have to conclude that we are getting better and better.
If we could ask people from the crusades, medieval times, Roman times, the Dark Ages, the so-called Enlightenment, etc, I have to think they would be pretty impressed with what we have going on here. Ever so gradually base issues like racism show gradual improvement. Think back 20 years to apartheid in South Africa. Think back 40 years to the US. Think back to 2004 when we all sucked at poker. We still have all kinds of problems, in no small part because we have been picking fights with backward governments that don't let their people have a lot of freedom. One day long after we’re dead we might just get there.
Even Hobbes (referenced above) would have to conclude that today’s “state of nature” would be at least 30% less nasty, 45% less brutish, and we already know that today’s life is nowhere near as short. It may even be too damn long.
When people are free to make choices, they make all kinds of different ones, and we gradually learn from them together. When people aren’t free to make choices, nobody learns anything, because the whole idea is to protect that status quo. Screw the status quo.
I am not saying we will all make good decisions. A lot of us will make horrible decisions. That’s kind of the point.
And so therein lies Theory # 3 of the Book of Mark: People, including me, should be free to make their own really stupid decisions.
The truth is, playing poker, drinking profusely, smoking up and downloading porn may not be good for me, but it is still good for society to let me do it. Don’t worry about me, I’m a team player. I don’t mind doing my part.
Just try and learn from my stupidity, will ya?
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3 Comments:
1. If you're single, stable and not in charge of other people's money go crazy with the gambling. But admit that this one is really about the government just wanting to protect its interest in the taxation of the sins and pander to some conservative religious voters. Despite the pseudo science of "how to play the game and win" types like yourself, the average westerner doesn't equate freedom with the right to play games of chance that amount to people with an understanding of basic psychology taking advantage of people who never understood those math classes about probability.
Your libertarian arguments about an ideological desire for freedom ignore huge aspects of western thought. I seem to remember something about Western Civilization also (or alternatively) being about the desire for the "good" (sometimes confused with the pursuit of happiness), peace, order and good government, and the search for truth. You must watch too many Mel Gibson movies – They may take our lives but they will never take away our Freedom!!! (Stop looking up me wee kilt).
2. Do we have to go down the "universal healthcare and why your cirrhotic liver belongs to all of us if you want us to help you when it finally stops working and you need a new one" road again? And don't give me the "we should have the freedom to chose our system of healthcare and supply it for ourselves through private systems of insurance yeah da yeah da" side-step. You know that leads to health for the rich and dead rotting corpses in the streets for the rest of us.
3. Can you prove your downloaded porn came from sites in no way connected with the illegal trade in women, pets, and children? Probably not, without the aid of some good old government regulation. The day you convince me that a 19 year old high school dropout on her knees in front of two greasy looking potbellied forty year olds about to blow their loads in her face somehow has more freedom than a girl forced to wear a burqua and not permitted to attend school to maintain her modesty, I may be more sympathetic to your porno needs. The point is that neither have much freedom thanks to industries promoted, managed, and maintained by men for men. Before you give me the "lots of women are managers in the porn industry" comeback, remember lots of women willingly force their daughters to wear the burqua and stay out of school. Turn off your computer for awhile and try some good erotic literature, the imagination can be a wonderful thing (so I have heard).
4. I am a big fan of medical MJ though I have never tried it myself. As for regular personal use, I have no problem with decriminalization, less spending on the war on drugs, and more emphasis on taxing the stuff because if you can't get through a day without a joint you might as well help out with the national debt. Farmers from Columbia to BC to Afghanistan would be better off will less criminalization of the drug trade because the market would fall and growing food might become profitable again.
But so help me anybody gets behind the wheel high and hits my wife, mother or sister on the highway and I will be thinking seriously about bring back the death penalty. You Mark I trust; that sixteen year old who can't see the road for all the smoke in his van, I am not so sure about. I agree that we learn from our mistakes. The two tough questions are: who gets to make the mistakes; and who gets to pay for them?
Wow, I only just saw this. How long has it been here? Great post. I could go on forever but I am making a point not to argue with commenters because I have already had my say. We'll have to argue in a bar one day.
So few people challenge me on the pornography while letting the marijuana slide. It's a nice change.
Thanks for reading.
Hi all!
p
Bye
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