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Freedom, Overused Word
Oct. 6th, 2006 04:51 pmIt doesn't matter what kind of laws are on the books if they aren't the laws that are used. –Matthew T. Mishalak
How free a society actually is depends upon how the whole of the society works, not the laws on the books or even the way the government acts. It is the sum of how people treat each other, how business treat employees and customers, how government agencies treat the people, how police treat the accused and the victims, and on and on.
It also isn't the features of a society, but how those features are used and the oversight of them. Having internal identification could either be liberating or oppressive, depending upon how it is actually used and the safeguards against misuse.
I thought of this today upon seeing the trailer for a documentary by an anti-income tax nut. The usual suspect of an argument, "There is no law that requires people to pay income tax and we're unfree because of it." (Forgetting the whole Sixteenth, " The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.") The usual nuttery and argument that there is no real difference between the parties and so on. I think they both have corrupt members but to characterize them as crime families is outside the ballpark that we call sanity.
That last bit was almost a Tickism. Except that it was serious.
Anyway I'm off to Denver shorly. Vague plans, do some jewlery making, see some movies. Maybe this animated one at the Esquire called Renaissance. There are some others that look interesting, but I have no idea what will actually end up happening.
How free a society actually is depends upon how the whole of the society works, not the laws on the books or even the way the government acts. It is the sum of how people treat each other, how business treat employees and customers, how government agencies treat the people, how police treat the accused and the victims, and on and on.
It also isn't the features of a society, but how those features are used and the oversight of them. Having internal identification could either be liberating or oppressive, depending upon how it is actually used and the safeguards against misuse.
I thought of this today upon seeing the trailer for a documentary by an anti-income tax nut. The usual suspect of an argument, "There is no law that requires people to pay income tax and we're unfree because of it." (Forgetting the whole Sixteenth, " The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.") The usual nuttery and argument that there is no real difference between the parties and so on. I think they both have corrupt members but to characterize them as crime families is outside the ballpark that we call sanity.
That last bit was almost a Tickism. Except that it was serious.
Anyway I'm off to Denver shorly. Vague plans, do some jewlery making, see some movies. Maybe this animated one at the Esquire called Renaissance. There are some others that look interesting, but I have no idea what will actually end up happening.