The Philosphy of Liberty

Freedom 21 Santa Cruz ^ | Ken Schoolland

[hedgetrimmer]

Here's a flash movie that is very interesting I think. The creator attempts to show how liberty works: can this help when you are trying to explain to a teenager or others that Liberty is precious and must be protected?

The movie goes into a lot of different areas, personal freedoms, majority tyranny over the minority and force of government as a vehicle for slavery and corruption.

http://www.freedom21santacruz.net/liberty.html

[hedgetrimmer]

I would like to know what you all think about this movie. Does it explain the notion of liberty well enough? Whats missing,if anything?

[hedgetrimmer]

PING

[citizenK]

The movie does a pretty good job at explaining liberty. The problem is, I don't think many of the petty tyrants and socialists in our midst will understand that they initiate force against people for their pet causes. Some people do not believe and will not believe it is an act of force for society to provide people with their needs (e.g., health care, food, a living wage, etc.). These people think that the provision of such things is an obligation.

Bottom line - this movie will appeal to those who already are lovers of liberty. For those who don't love liberty, the points made in the short movie will be too abstract for them to grasp. The socialists will dismiss the arguments because they believe a society based on such principles lacks compassion and is overtly cruel. It's easy for the socialists to be compassionate, for the very reasons illustrated in the movie. The socialists exercise their compassion by stealing, enslaving, or forcing others to do their bidding, but they will never recognize this is what they actually do.

[hedgetrimmer]

So, how could it be made more convincing to the other side?

[Onelifetogive]

Does it explain the notion of liberty well enough? Whats missing,if anything?

I do not disagree with the movie...

but, it doesn't explain justifiable use of force by government. Government force can be used to STOP or PREVENT others from killing, enslaving or stealing.

[Jason_b]

Thanks for this.
This could be a useful tool for explaining things to people with too short an attention span to sit and read.

I'd like to have one developed that shows how inflation works. That as prices increase, it is not because the value of the priced item goes up, but because the value of the UNIT of account goes down, thus it takes more UNITS to buy the item. This is a tricky concept for many people to accept because the numbers on the pieces of paper stay the same, gee my $10 bill has been $10 the whole time, so how can the value of it change?

This is why people think that increasing housing prices is giving them a profit, appreciation. And why the government can get away with levying property gains taxes on such imaginary profits.

It would be clearer to set a baseline of 1,000,000 dollars and graph the number of homes in a particular working class neighborhood that that $1,000,000 would buy over time. In 1940 it would buy the neighborhood, today where I live, it would buy about two of those houses with a little left over.

"Lenin is certainly right. There is no subtler or more severe means of overturning the existing basis of society (destroy capitalism) than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
-- John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff

[hedgetrimmer]

I'll have to look around. There probably is something out there somewhere.

[Noumenon]

Very, very well done. This needs to be presented with a personal followup and refutation of the usual illogical responses offered by the Left.


While a few - a very,very few - might be swayed by the reason and logic so well presented here, most of those who have chosen a philosophy of death over the philsophy of life and liberty could care less. Take force and illogic away fro them, and they have nothing left but the unreasoning hatred of the good for being good. We all know where thatleads, as the sad and brutal history of the twentieth century has shown.

Very, very few liberals and even fewer socialists are willing to face the fact that the premises upon which they've based their existence amount to little more than a howling, shrieking fraud.

War is coming. MAke no mistake about it. But it's work such as yours that will help us to make a better world after this next period of civil strife is behind us. Until we have to do it again. Once every couple of hundred years isn't so bad.

[TigersEye]

That's very good. Beats the snot out of "Heather has two mommies." Metaphorically speaking. ; )

[hedgetrimmer]

This is the work of Ken Schoolland, not me. But I am very happy to pass the information along.

I have such reverence for the founders, its hard to believe how far the citizens of this country have fallen. It hasn't taken very long, once the communists got hold of the universities, schools and judicial system to bring us to such a state of dysfunction, has it?

[citizenK]

So, how could it be made more convincing to the other side?

Unfortunately, little can be done to make the movie more convincing to the other side. The problem is that the "other side" (i.e., socialists) is that their political philosophy is essentially a religion for them. In order to convince them you have literally got to tear down their belief system. No small feat.

IIRC, Limbaugh was talking about this phenomena the other day. Political movements and positions have basically replaced religion (e.g., environmentalism). The problem is compounded by the emotion-based context in which political discourse takes in the society. IOW, people do very little thinking anymore where it comes to politics - it's now all about how people feel about things.

The long-term solution to the problem lies in education. Sadly, our education system today is a major part of the problem because it perpetuates the emotion-based politics instead of teaching people to refute it. Students today are encouraged to develop opinions instead of using rational thought, logic, and facts to make sense of the world. Opinions are like...everyone has one.

That being said, the movie has a good message and presents the philosophy of liberty effectively. Perhaps some people will be inspired to think more about what it says and what it means. Like I said above, changing what are essentially religious beliefs of people is no small feat.

[citizenK]

I do have one concrete suggestion though...

Change the music up a bit. The points of the movie are lost in the repetition of the music, and it makes the movie feel like it is longer (and more boring) than it really is.

[RickofEssex]

thanks

[Veracious Poet]

This is an interesting timing of events...

Just yeterday I was thinking just how much money I've been robbed of by the welfare system to care other people's children (as I was looking at some disruptive hooligans on the subway).

The thought that any of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that has been extracted from my income is going to aid & abet those little nastys made me a bit nauseous.

I have no problem giving up some of my income to help maintain "a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity", but using my money to enable people that don't want to earn an living for themselves, or procreate recklessly, is "theft" in my book.

Then again, isn't that what the gov't. is doing by allowing corporations to enjoy massive tax-loopholes and yet I have to pay my full share?

The only way the to STOP the THUGGERY is to repeal the 16th Amendment and switch to collecting taxes through consumption and import/export levies. ;-)

[hedgetrimmer]

Then you'll be happy to hear this:

An effort to do away with federal income tax and replace it with a national consumption tax is gaining steam, as activists strive to get at least 100 members of the House of Representatives on board by Independence Day.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37435

[Veracious Poet]

Well, if a REAL news agency would cover it I'd be happier...WorldNetDaily is not exactly known for be taken seriously, and I doubt any of the sponsors of this legislation are taken seriously on the hill.

Just call it a hunch - The political elite may joke about doing away with the IRS, but I think the common cold will be cured first!

[Veracious Poet]

BTTT - BTW, a little more interesting than Martha for all of you bots out there in bot-land! ;-)