You know, I think George W. Bush was right in his numerous speeches talking about how "the terrorists hate our freedom!" Okay, maybe not 100% right, but definitely 50% right. Somebody does hate our freedom, but it's not usually the terrorists (defined here in the most popular mainstream American definition of "scary brown Muslim people from the Middle East who blow stuff up"). If there is anyone who really hates freedom in its strictest sense, they're living right here in the USA. That's only partially correct too. Very few people actually hate freedom for themselves, but they sure as hell hate freedom for other people.
This particular fault is something many people are guilty of in one degree or another, any why not? It's much easier to hate the freedoms of your neighbor than it is to hate the freedoms of folks across the ocean. Whenever you engage in political schadenfreude over a certain group who got shafted by Uncle Sam, you are a freedom-hater like it or not. When you delight in the result of the latest banned behavior, product or service you are indeed hating the freedom of others and loving the fact that it's now illegal. It's a natural feeling, one we have all felt at one time or another. But it's a highly ignoble and dangerous feeling as well. It's a feeling that can turn against you in time. There is no guarantee you will always be on the right side of the equation. One day the stuff YOU like to do might be up on the chopping block.
Take for instance, the most bizarre, surreal and utterly ludicrous campaign I have ever heard of. The trans fat ban! Can you believe this shit? People actually want to ban a certain FOOD INGREDIENT!? Am I still on planet earth? Has everyone gone fucking nuts but me? People actually VOTED to ban trans fat in New York. How ironic that this occured in the same state where the whole, 'the terrorists hate our freedom' mess got started back in 2001. Apparently freedom is so critically important that in order to "secure it" we have to send the army to kill thousands of foreign "terrorists" but at the same time we are voting away our own freedoms in our own fucking country! WE AMERICANS HATE OUR FREEDOM!!!
If it isn't trans fat it's smoking, gay marriage, drugs, whatever...name your issue. If there's something you don't like, NOT doing it yourself just isn't good enough is it? You have to stop your neighbor from doing it too don't you? Doesn't it just feel so good to force people to bend to your will? Isn't it great to have your enemy over a barrel? Aren't you filled with hot, sweet, righteous indignation when you see that stinky smoker forced to smoke his cigarette outside in the freezing cold? HA! HA! HA! That's what you get, sucker! But no, these are not positive feelings to have. We all must resist these urges if we claim to love freedom. To a religious person I would call these thoughts sinful. These are freedom-hater kind of feelings. It's an ugly feeling which should make us recoil and wince in disgust.
There's plenty of things in life that are potentially dangerous, risky and unhealthy. But most things like that also have an extremely positive side to them. If you value your life why would anyone jump out of an airplane or off a bridge with a bungee cord tied on? Why indeed would we lock ourselves into heavy metallic cars filled with gallons of explosive fuel, racing along at high speeds nearly everyday of our lives? Why would we take a bunch of dry leaves, burn them and inhale them? Why would you eat something that makes you fat? It all sounds really dangerous. But we still do them because we have decided that the risks are outweighed by the benefits. Other people have decided that for some things the risks are too great. The ability to choose what risks you want to take is part of the whole freedom package. When you start chipping away at that you are not only ruining your neighbor's freedom, but your own as well.
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2 comments:
As long as a guy doesn't have to pay for the outcome of unhealthy behavior. I pay health insurance which has continued to rise. I do not wish to pay for behavior I myself do not participate in.
Insurance is a very bizarre and complicated thing indeed. Those who pay and pay into it and rarely\never make a claim taking money out are supporting those who are either irresponsible or unlucky. It's sort of a charity in that regard. I don't know enough about how it works, though. I suspect there is much government involvement.
Ideally there would be no systems which make men so inter-dependent on each other. But it's also an attitude we choose to have. I think we can easily go down an ugly road when we start looking at our neighbor as costing us money. That just isn't freedom to me, always looking over my shoulder at what so and so is doing and how I'm getting screwed by it. Unfortunately this may actually come about if those who argue for the absurd notion of a "right to health care" get their way. Then everyone will really have their hands in your pockets.
Personally I don't feel put upon by my fellow man simply because my insurance went up or something or other increased in price. Rather, it's these figures here in the little boxes on my latest W-2 form, THAT I have a problem with. That money really and truly is going to "behaviors" I do not want to participate in.
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