Just what is this 'Freedom' we're Spreading Around?
President Bush loves to talk about how we're spreading Freedom around, like chunky peanut butter or Philly cream cheese. But just what is that? In order to know when to pull our troops from Iraq, we need to know how much Freedom is needed, we also need to know when we've spread enough. Sadly, Iraq is no bagel. Spreading is really not a good metaphor for this process. I'd say, Freedom in individuals erupts when the dynamics of interaction allow it.
Freedom is not merely the adoption of elections. It does include being able to get out of one's house and not get blown up by a car bomb. But preferably, it also means women don't have to cover themselves in shame when they go out (when the forecast is not a "chance of car bombs"). It means people have the right to think and write down what they think without getting locked in jail, even if it happens to be critical of larger entities like governments and corporations. It means people can share most ideas without asking permission from a government or corporation. It means having a choice of things to buy, rather than all products being owned by one entity or cartel, with an incentive to keep prices high. It means a chance to change some of the rules now and then, given the dynamics of checks and balances. It means reasonable Security without Big Brother watching everything about you personally.
Shouldn't we be setting a good example here at home? Our Founding Fathers had a decent idea with the Bill of Rights and Constitution. They were quite adamant about not sacrificing Liberty in the name of Security, but that's exactly what our Administration has been doing. It has also been taking the opportunity to sacrifice Liberty in the name of Protecting Children. As with most of these sacrifices, the changes do not actually accomplish a reduction in whatever it was we're afraid of, assuming it exists.
The Freedom-spreading (i.e War) in Iraq, the CopyFight over Intellectual Property, Censorship, Open Source Software -- these are inter-related to me. They are fights about Freedom.
More about this later...
President Bush loves to talk about how we're spreading Freedom around, like chunky peanut butter or Philly cream cheese. But just what is that? In order to know when to pull our troops from Iraq, we need to know how much Freedom is needed, we also need to know when we've spread enough. Sadly, Iraq is no bagel. Spreading is really not a good metaphor for this process. I'd say, Freedom in individuals erupts when the dynamics of interaction allow it.
Freedom is not merely the adoption of elections. It does include being able to get out of one's house and not get blown up by a car bomb. But preferably, it also means women don't have to cover themselves in shame when they go out (when the forecast is not a "chance of car bombs"). It means people have the right to think and write down what they think without getting locked in jail, even if it happens to be critical of larger entities like governments and corporations. It means people can share most ideas without asking permission from a government or corporation. It means having a choice of things to buy, rather than all products being owned by one entity or cartel, with an incentive to keep prices high. It means a chance to change some of the rules now and then, given the dynamics of checks and balances. It means reasonable Security without Big Brother watching everything about you personally.
Shouldn't we be setting a good example here at home? Our Founding Fathers had a decent idea with the Bill of Rights and Constitution. They were quite adamant about not sacrificing Liberty in the name of Security, but that's exactly what our Administration has been doing. It has also been taking the opportunity to sacrifice Liberty in the name of Protecting Children. As with most of these sacrifices, the changes do not actually accomplish a reduction in whatever it was we're afraid of, assuming it exists.
The Freedom-spreading (i.e War) in Iraq, the CopyFight over Intellectual Property, Censorship, Open Source Software -- these are inter-related to me. They are fights about Freedom.
More about this later...
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