(November 29, 2018 at 1:34 pm)Cherub786 Wrote:Humans don't willingly inflict harm on each other Thomas Hobbes would like a word with you(November 29, 2018 at 1:24 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: Now that the above is out of the way...allow me to suggest that you do have respect for the notion of a social contract, as personal liberty is a part of that. Aside from that contract to personal liberty all that you can expect is your neighbors cruel boot on your neck while they take "liberties" with you, your things, and your loved ones.
The rule of law exists in huge part due to most peoples inability to enforce the social contract individually. Do you have confidence in the idea that you could keep my cruel boot off your neck, or would it be preferable to have some third party to call for help when the need arises?
It seems, and this is just me trying to unpack your comments..that you are disgusted with abuses of those institutions and authorities, not so much with the very existence of those things. If they weren't so damned abusive it would be np.
I feel there should be an option for individuals and groups to withdraw from a social contract that we have all been born into and had no other alternative but to live with. This simply means withdrawing from the present social contract and forming new ones.
Furthermore, my political philosophy is based on the idea that human beings are fundamentally good and do not arbitrarily inflict violence on one another. Violence, however, is inherent to the state. A human individual will generally become violent if he finds himself in very desperate circumstances, and especially if he has no appreciation for individual liberty.
I am contemptuous of the state and its institutions, but feel that it is a design flaw, and the solution is to have a less omnipresent state with very limited functions. Though this ideal is conceivable in societies that fundamentally cherish individual freedom and possess the nerve to fight for it, even if that entails considerable inconvenience.
(November 29, 2018 at 1:26 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: -as an addendum, I'm not particularly concerned with religious liberties, noting that the majority of people are..indeed..religious, and have those liberties, except insomuch as other religious assholes seek to strip them of the same or that they themselves dearly wish to do that to another.
It depends where you are. Throughout most of this planet religious liberty is severely curtailed. Just look at the largest nation in the world (communist China). They are literally forcing millions of Uighurs in “re-education camps”, where they are forced to sing praises to the Communist Party, forbidden from speaking their mother tongue, coerced to denounce their religion, force fed pork, and so on. Now admittedly this is an extreme example. In China, the Buddhist monks of Tibet and the Christian community are likewise severely repressed. Churches and religious groups require permission from the government to operate and are under close surveillance. But even in supposedly secular and liberal Europe you have restrictions on religious liberty, such as religious articles of clothing. The rise of far right populism is extremely alarming for religious minorities around the world.
Seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.
Inuit Proverb
Inuit Proverb