It is okay to concede to a state of lack of freedom provided you are happy and your needs are met by those with power over you — Benj96
What if the state is unable to fulfill my needs? — Tzeentch
However, we are not all equal in a society. Societies by nature are hierarchical. — Benj96
The problem is that politics is about power and power tends to corrupt as well as seek more power. Without checks and balances, this ultimately leads to a corrupt dictatorship controlled by those who control resources, finance and economy. — Apollodorus
Is it that those who wish to be powerful are the wrong type of personality to have power? Or is it that upon attaining it there is somehow a complex of elitism that is developed or that the ego expands out of hand. Or is it simply that one can no longer sympathise with anothers struggle/ desperation once they themselves have been removed from it for long enough? — Benj96
Society in many ways is not the fosterer of individual freedom but rather convention (agreement), law, order, policy and regulation and ultimately control of a population.
Many of these things are of course beneficial to the vast majority - such as law and order and the general peace and security that comes with that. — Benj96
The reason they don’t exert any change despite all being “unified/ in agreement about what is troubling them” is that they’ve been led to believe they are powerless — Benj96
What if the state is unable to fulfill my needs? Also, am I allowed to determine what my needs are, or will someone else determine my needs for me and whether they are fulfilled or not? — Tzeentch
. So the powerful take from the rich and give to the non-starving. This is how humans act. — Gregory
Has the individual ever been free? We've been living in ever-growing communities for the last 12,000 years, but even as hunter-gatherers individuals were not "free". Social animals like us can't be entirely free and independent agents. We are obligated by our various needs to maintain tight social relationships. — Bitter Crank
My experience is that equality leads to jealousy. — Pretty Herds
So its not because the US is a society that there is an income tax, but because the government, inspired by competing socialist and populist forces, gave itself the right to pilfer its citizen's wealth on the specious claim that politicians knew how to better use the people's wealth than they did. — NOS4A2
After all the accounting of freedom to and freedom from has been tallied up — James Riley
Why does equality lead to jealousy? — Benj96
My only issue is I think one can go overboard with regulation. — Benj96
the requirement is often not because society cares about the individual; rather, it's because someone has to pay for taking care of them when they end up a vegetable, and the insurance companies absolutely hate paying for anything — James Riley
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.