RE: Signatures!
January 16, 2012 at 5:33 pm
(This post was last modified: January 16, 2012 at 5:46 pm by AthiestAtheist.)
(January 16, 2012 at 12:35 pm)DoubtVsFaith Wrote: And I'm only saying that we ultimately don't choose our motives and so are slaves to them.Again, "slaves" is a bit extreme. Our feelings and wants and instincts come from within us, so we're not really slaves to them.
(January 16, 2012 at 12:42 pm)whateverist Wrote:I agree with that. I just want the freedom to be me. I don't find anything wrong with the fact that I have wants that I can't control. There are lot's of things we cannot control about ourselves. (Personally, I would rather have the ability to shapeshift.) They are simply a part of our instincts which keep us alive.(January 16, 2012 at 12:35 pm)DoubtVsFaith Wrote: And I'm only saying that we ultimately don't choose our motives and so are slaves to them.
I wonder if that disturbs you in any way? To my mind the wants, values and so forth which motivate us are substantially who we are. So freedom which seeks to transcend those is more than I want or need. Free to me is free enough.
(January 16, 2012 at 12:44 pm)DoubtVsFaith Wrote: When then are things I want but do not want to want, I wish I had more freedom.I agree with that second statement (though, not the first). That is why I believe it is wrong to punish people just for its own sake, or some sense of moral outrage. Some people simply cannot help themselves, and I think more people should acknowledge that. There are practical reasons people should be arrested, and protecting society from them is what we should focus on.
When people blame people as if they were more free than they actually are, I wish people wouldn't believe they had more freedom than they actually do.
"Sisters, you know only the north; I have traveled in the south lands. There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the people of Bolvangar did--not in the same way, but just as horribly. They cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls; they cut them with knives so that they shan't feel. That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the Church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to."
-Ruta Skadi, The Subtle Knife
-Ruta Skadi, The Subtle Knife
