Re:Richard Stallman on Steve Jobs: correction
by tokenadult on Thursday October 27, 2011 @04:22PM
(#3165336)
If only things were so simple in real life where liberty is often abused so as to threaten the safety of others.
The historical trend has been the other way around: as societies have become more free in general, they have also become safer in general. I would much rather live in the liberty of the United States, where I enjoy a crime-free neighborhood, than in the one-party dictatorship of China in the 1980s, where I saw more fights among strangers in public in three weeks in three different cities than I have seen in an entire lifetime traveling all over the United States.
for more about increasing safety of human societies over time (when the long-term trend has also plainly been in the direction of greater individual liberty for all aspects of human behavior).
The historical trend has been the other way around: as societies have become more free in general, they have also become safer in general. I would much rather live in the liberty of the United States, where I enjoy a crime-free neighborhood, than in the one-party dictatorship of China in the 1980s, where I saw more fights among strangers in public in three weeks in three different cities than I have seen in an entire lifetime traveling all over the United States.
See Steven Pinker's new book
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0...
for more about increasing safety of human societies over time (when the long-term trend has also plainly been in the direction of greater individual liberty for all aspects of human behavior).