Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
Possibly I would agree with either of you if we clarified what we mean by freedom. Complete freedom would be anarchy, and I don't believe in that any more than I believe in pure communism-- I don't think people are made to be able to live in perfectly ideological states.
Let's look at a few specific examples:
Freedom of speech - but this doesn't include libel, right?
Freedom of religion - but not including religions that include human sacrifice, right?
In any civil society, there are boundaries on our freedoms. The boundaries are fluid, and different societies put them in different places.
Discussing our differing definitions of freedom and how it weighs with other virtues might be a good way of comparing cultures between regions, as well as within countries.
|
In a like manner, I can pick one type of justice, i.e. "Justice = lawfulness" as defined by the American College Dictionary. So in a dictatorship (where the bulk of the people are now free) the dictator makes the law and justice is what he says it is.
But looking at your freedom example; I realize that just as I am free to bash your head in, so also are you free to bash my head in. If we're both smart, we will sit down and discuss whether to mutually bash heads and probably agree not to. However wars get started when we can not agree and it is usually because we can't agree on what is fair.
There has been a lot of talk that "the rich" should pay more than the poor "because thay can afford to". So when a rich person pays $10 for an apple at the farmer's market, does it taste better to him than the $1 apple the poor person buys. And if the rich should pay more taxes than the poor (and this usually meeans a larger percentage not just more dollors), shouldn't he also have to pay more for food, housing, cars, etc., etc.? Isn't that fair?
Is it fair for a person with no children to have to pay for schooling children? Is it fair for a well person to pay for medicine for a sick person? Is it fair for a person who obeys the law to pay for the crimes of a law breaker?
What seems fair to me may not seem fair to you. Some of this concept of fairness is based on our culture and/or our religion, on what we were taught growing up, on what we've experienced during our life, etc. It is alsways difficult and sometimes impossible to understand what someone else might think was fair.
A graphic example (
may not be considered appropriate by some so please skip this) is when my daughter was complaining about how the female sexual harmones affected her when compaired to a male's. I pointed out that at least (during much of her life) it was reasonable periodic and could be planned around. On the other hand a young man could just be walking down the street, thinking of nothing in particular when ZING! his harmons might jerk him up. And it didn't get any better with age, just less frequent. So was that fair to men? She admitted that "the devil she knew was better than the devil she didn't know." But was none or all or some fair? I don't know and it depends on your viewpoint.
Is what is fair to those within the one sigma limit also fair to the outliers? Is what's fair the the upper outliers also fair to the lower outliers?
