Re:Shamelessness as a Strategy (2019)
by pdonis on Thursday December 31, 2020 @03:53PM
(#25597001)
> Duty defined by society and not individuals themselves is a mark of a non-free society.
No, it isn't. Many duties are defined simply by being necessary in order to have a society where people can gain wealth by specialization and trade and exercise their individual freedom in any meaningful sense. The very medium in which we are having this conversation, which enables people to exercise their individual freedom to say what they think in a way that has never existed before, wouldn't exist without such a society. Neither would a multitude of other benefits that we all take for granted but which most of the humans that have ever lived did not have and could not even conceive of.
What is the mark of a non-free society is particular individuals telling other individuals what their "duty" is and claiming that they are doing so in the name of "society", when in fact they're just doing it for their own individual benefit.
No, it isn't. Many duties are defined simply by being necessary in order to have a society where people can gain wealth by specialization and trade and exercise their individual freedom in any meaningful sense. The very medium in which we are having this conversation, which enables people to exercise their individual freedom to say what they think in a way that has never existed before, wouldn't exist without such a society. Neither would a multitude of other benefits that we all take for granted but which most of the humans that have ever lived did not have and could not even conceive of.
What is the mark of a non-free society is particular individuals telling other individuals what their "duty" is and claiming that they are doing so in the name of "society", when in fact they're just doing it for their own individual benefit.