Freedom is defined by how many types of behavior are possible. If everyone is self destructive, then someone who is mentally healthy is the outlier. If everyone acts the same, the one who acts differently defines the extent of freedom.
The great fallacy of the Left is that they are tolerant. They are not. They are bigoted towards any internally directed forms of morality, with religion being the most obvious example.
2 replies on “Freedom”
Bigotry in its many forms is always a judgment against another person. Even and especially political segmentation. Hating liberals or hating conservatives is, in the end, just hating. And yet regarding one's own political view as somehow superior to another is extremely difficult to drop. All bigotry is an obstacle to grasping our interconnectedness. It'll take a miracle to change what folks call "human nature". Wait and see.
I do believe some views are better. It is clearly more useful to regard the sun as the center of the solar system, and germs as the cause of disease.
Science is nothing but systematic observation. In politics, that process involves reading a lot of history, and understanding human nature.
Those views are most correct which most consistently lead to chosen outcomes. If the goal, for example, is to remediate poverty, free markets and property rights that are protected by a government are clearly the best methods.
Alternatively, we can SEE the outcome of socialism the world over, as some version of it was adopted virtually the entire world over in the post-colonial period. Socialism was tried across Africa, in India, in Latin America.
And it always fails. It never works, except when very limited, and confined to populations that are homogeneous, honest, intelligent, and hard working. Those traits are not possessed in most of the world's population.