True.dat

On an interesting thread over at ACF on assisted suicide, which is a whole seperate discussion, the fan favorite topic of freedom was brought up.

Scrolling through, I found this post - which in my opinion crystallizes what I feel is the issue with the "freedom" issue in our country.

By poster deadcactus

There is no such thing as freedom for more than an individual. It's a gimmick, a buzzword. It's used to justify sending young men to die for something that doesn't affect them and to bust some heads when something doesn't go your way. There's only a balance between some authority leaving you alone and your peers leaving you alone.

Why does appreciation matter? Because people don't know wtf they want. This countries full of angry, angst-filled people trying desperately to find something to fight for. Something to get riled up over. Then they pick something as ridiculous as freedom in the US to be thier crusade. Why? Because the government has laws over who can kill who? Because the government has laws over what substances are allowed in a community? That's just bull. That's just taking the word freedom out of context and making it about your own rights and not everyone's rights.

Yes we have some laws that need to be changed (and I agree that assisted suicide should be legal). But to sit here and rant on the internet, pretending we are oppressed (ignoring the fact that you are demonstrating your freedom to question the government publicly; which is the one freedom that really matters), is asanine. As long as the people have the power to question the government and to change the laws they disagree with; pretending we are oppressed is ridiculous. Pretendign we lack freedom is ridiculous.

And it's that very lack of appreciation for what freedom we do have that threatens our freedoms. The whole idea that we are helpess and captive to our government is the kind of asanine idea that causes people to not even bother trying to get a law changed. They sit around and complain and wait for someone else to do something so they jump in wit hsupport and pretend they played a part. You act as if you're already oppressed, so what insentive does any government have to give up the reigns? The country's already mentally defeated if we believe we're oppressed. If we already think we have so little freedom, what's it going to matter if they take a little more.

Appreciation and understanding for what freedom we have is cornerstone to maintaining freedom...