RE: Not My Meme! #1090
You are viewing a single comment's thread:
what an awesome response! That is a post right there if you ask me. Wonderful analogies in there.
I recall talking to my father as a child and he planted the seeds of disdain for the government oversight. He was talking about how you can get a "farm use" tag for a vehicle and then there are zero rules about using it. In the small community where he was brought up people would register all sorts of vehicles as "farm use" including sports cars and because the community shared his disdain for government, nobody really cared. There was also farm use diesel that was dyed and as long as the people never left the community the police would never get them in trouble for having purple exhaust (the color indicating that you are using tax-free fuel) coming out of your vehicle.
Not all communities can come together like that though and this was a long time ago and has likely changed with the digital age.
While your tie-rod story is definitely a scary one, even in a situation like that one which is quite extreme should be up to me if I am going to put myself in a situation where something like that could happen. If my actions cause harm to other people or their property then I am liable. We can't attempt to prevent everything before it happens. Life isn't Minority Report although I think we are headed that direction.
No, and it's a reductio ad absurdum in progress presently being imposed. The world is, and should be, a dangerous place. The movie 'Wall-E' hinted at what happens when it's not. The bloated, infantilized passengers lived in a very safe environment, and were utterly incapable of anything meaningful.
Free and sovereign people are safe because they're too dangerous to attack. The arms borne by free men symbolize their freedom, but, more to the point, keep it. Pampered pets are safe because they're kept in padded cages, their claws blunted so they don't accidentally scratch themselves (or the furniture), neutered so they don't get into fights, etc.
The true, and worst, danger we face is our very safety being imposed on us for our own good by our masters, upon whom they intend us to become utterly dependent.
Bereft of challenges, of struggle against opposition, we become ever more feeble. With AI deftly solving all problems, removing all effort living requires, humanity will evolve into boneless jellies kept in vats. Theoretically, anyway. Long before that happens our psychopathic masters will crimp off our feeding tubes, declining to continue to sustain us at their expense.
I'll take dangerous freedom.
Thanks!
I hadn't made that connection in Wall-E. I like the reference. I've always said that one thing that makes Pixar movies great is that there are normally two stories there: One to be entertaining and silly for the kiddos and something kind of hidden in plain sight that is for the adults to enjoy.
once again though, absolutely fantastic and thought-provoking response!