Freedom, we all want it. We want to have free choice, be free to decide, free markets, freedom of ideals, freedom to practice, freedom of speech, freedom of this, that and all things. We talk about it, we push for it and we fight against those who oppress us, those who limit our freedoms.
What is rarely discussed by those chasing freedoms are the consequences of being free, the price of acting autonomously, the responsibility inherent inside the ideal. People rarely want to face up to their responsibilities and perhaps this is due to their desire for freedom as accepting responsibility by definition, ties one down. We want freedom of choice, with no cost in the choosing.
And this is an issue, there are always costs to making a choice whether it be an opportunity cost or the cost of choosing poorly yet, none seem willing to pay. When it comes to the cost of making errors, people are less than willing to even admit them, let alone cover them. When they crash their car, they want insurance, when they lose their life savings in a flash crash, they want regulation.
When people lose, when the debt collectors come knocking, they want support, coverage, a bailout. What happens to their previous calls for freedom when they want daddy to step in at their back and offer his protection?
The struggle for a truly free market comes with a problem, what happens to those who choose badly, those who act poorly, those unwilling and unable to cover their debts? The gamblers looking for a big win on an outside horse only to have it limp home in last position. Are the free people going to cover the loss or will the loser be thrown into the wilderness to be eaten by wolves?
This brings up a conflict as very few will be willing to be the one to directly throw them under the freedom bus but, very few will want to be their backer, so what happens? Well, regulation, authority and associations get developed to deal with the failures in life, the ones that were just not cut out for all of the freedom, not clever or talented enough to become robust, antifragile. Life's losers.
What happens if I am not good enough to survive in the free world? What happens if my skills are not high enough to compete, my mind not sharp enough to create, my body not healthy enough to act? What happens when robotics and automation replace the average level positions I am currently suitable for, will you choose to help me? Will you with your advanced skills and resources choose to offer a hand? What must I do for it? How will you wield your power over me?
When I am in need will I tie myself to you, offer my service, become enslaved? Will you treat me as an equal or subservient because I failed to survive on my own, whereas you thrived. I am weak, my memory is poor, my thinking is slow, my eyesight is failing. Did I ask for these limitations to be set upon me, did I have freedom of choice in what genetic attributes I was granted?
Perhaps, it should be this way where the strong survive based on the current needs of the environment. Those that cannot cope are shuffled out of existence while those that can, reproduce. Evolution.
But, is this our strength as a species? Is this how we grow and best fit our resources to our potential or does it lead to a narrow band of skills, a narrow band of genetics and if fortune swings its axe, those that could have helped, those that could have brought strength and solution were weeded out as unfits. Do we become dinosaurs incapable of adaptation?
How about yourself, are you game to find out what a world looks like when you and all others are released from the bonds of oppression? Do you fancy yourself among the survivors of this process of competition and attrition on an equal playing field insensitive to individual strengths and weaknesses across time, only what is useful in the moment?
Tell me, have you benefited from a helping hand, benefited from the assurance of government, the police, the army? Have you failed and been bailed out, received discounted education or medicine or unemployment benefits that have put food on the table when it was required. Would you offer the same grace to others if you had no obligation to do so?
We can see in this economic microcosm at Steemit how many of these freedoms play out, the scamming, the plagiarism, the raping of rewards and gaming of the system. We can see that when people exercise their rights to flag they face the wrath of those who have benefited heavily and we see fear in flagging one with more power to wield. Self-censorship, self-oppression.
We see the ongoing negotiation and struggle to build a better system to combat poor behaviour and provide a more equitable solution for all. We see a desire for governance.
When I think of freedom it is always coupled with responsibility and this extends past myself, past my wife and child, further than my local community, my immediate environment and onto the world at large. It must be this way as for me to survive, I must rely on others I have never met and never will to provide what I cannot do on my own, and there is a lot. I have debts to pay, I cannot in good conscience only take, I must also give.
And this comes back to freedom and responsibility. There are those who accept the conditions and still choose a position of personalised morality in their actions with others. At what point do I put a sword through those unwilling to take responsibility for their own position for the good of the groups? I am free to do so, am I not?
Do I become a perpetrator of social genocide, a supporter of caste systems, a promoter of inequality? Do I become a dictator? How am I free if my freedom is dependent on the oppression of others?
Lots of questions, very few answers robust enough to answer them all except for one. The only way to be free is to build the understanding that freedom is an illusion and we live in an environment of dictators, reliance and relationship, whether it be our genetic disposition, the food sources we eat from or the people who help us to our feet when we fall, we are caged, even if the door is open.
Perhaps this is maturity knocking or ignorance continued.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]