I'm not your pet.
You love others. You have a gentle, generous heart and want only the best for those in your community.
You're not like those selfish people who want to leave the vulnerable to their own devices and vices; in some sort of dog-eat-dog free for all.
You're better than that, and you believe we can all be better than that.
You're smart too. You know that people often can't be trusted to make sensible decisions like you can.
Caring for the individual sometimes means taking away some of their freedom to do dumb stuff.
Everyone should be free, but they should only be free to make good decisions.
The same ones you make.
It's like the way you care for your pets. Your dog wants to run out and chase cars, but you know that's going to end in tragedy, so you put fences around him.
It's smart and caring and clearly your responsibility as a pet owner.
Here's the thing though. I'm not your pet.
I'm a whole other human being, with a back story, and preferences and priorities and circumstances about which you know nothing.
Even if you knew me like I know myself, you still wouldn't be qualified to choose which freedoms I should enjoy; because the consequences of my choices are my own, not yours.
I have to live in this body.
Even with perfect knowledge and wisdom you still wouldn't have skin in the game.
The skin is mine.
At no point have you acquired a responsibility to take away my capacity to damage myself.
You hallucinated it.
Imagine a motorcyclist. He should be wearing a helmet, right? He'd have to be an idiot not to, and we have to look after idiots so they don't make poor decisions.
You care about him enough to make this call on his behalf.
He has terminal cancer. His dying wish is to ride across the continent with the wind in his hair.
You probably believe he should be free to decline chemotherapy without you sitting in judgement of his motives, even if you believe those motives are as seemingly petty and vain as not wanting to lose his hair; which is great.
People should be free to make those calls.
But then he's not qualified to decide whether or not to wear a helmet on his ride?
Sure, now you know his circumstances, he should definitely be free to forego the helmet, but where was this humility before you knew his story?
Should he ride around the country with his helmet on, acquainting his millions of self-appointed owners with his circumstances and begging them for his freedom, hoping he survives long enough for another, final ride without the helmet?
Or are you going to make the decision here and now that other people are not your pets?
Please continue to love people, but love them like people, not like pets.
Love them enough to trust them with their own decisions.
Great post mate.
I completely agree with the sentiment.
We just need the parasitic sociapaths running the governments to get the message. The expansion of the 'nanny state' is out of control especially over here thanks to the unelected drongo's on the EU commission. There is almost nothing left that they don't have a say on, sadly most people are happy to tow the line like obedient sheep.
It'll only get worse if people don't make a stand.
Nice one Matt.
Thanks mate. It's still really satisfying to formalise some of the ideas rattling around up in here, and immortalise them on-chain.
It's an incredible thing.
The most powerful kings and emperors of centuries past couldn't etch their thoughts into history like we can.
No matter what they wrote and where; if the new King didn't like it, it never happened.
I guess that is the opposite of how our society currently functions, it doesn't matter how many times you vote to change the government the agenda never changes. Still the wars, currency creation and socialist dogma ruining our societies.
Let's hope blockchain ends up being our way out of that crappy paradigm.
I'm sick of it!
we live in a judgemental society people love to judge, Living on the streets I feel it even more, Most people look down their nose at me they think they have me sussed out 'probably a junkie or an alcoholic stupid person'. It's funny when they do stop to talk, Immediately they pass judgement again & assume they are the better person or the clever one or try & save me with their religion. I have had to learn an inner laugh to deal with it.
Never let anyone tell you what to do or judge you, Let them advise & take it on board for what it's worth leave all important decisions concerning your own existence to the one who matters most...You. We are born alone & die alone in this life no matter who you meet in-between. There might be someone holding your hand when you die but they don't die with you we do it alone.
I got up to 'living on the streets' and just stopped reading.
Who has time to listen to a homeless guy?
Here. Have 10c.
:P
Seriously though, lots of wisdom there, particularly around death.
Nobody's going to prevent it, so why should anyone get to choose how you spend the days you have?
10c well you see that's why people don't understand me. I charge $750 an hour for my services & I do have to say I'm worth every cent :)
Darn, you're out of my league! Lol
😂
I can see why people want to protect each other, but education and guidance rather than enforcement should be the approach. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
When we capture dolphins from the wild and make them live in pools, some adjust and do as their trainers want in order to get fed and stay alive. However, many don't. They choose freedom over their own lives and have been known to drown themselves. Some people are the same.
You can tell someone the have to wear a cycle helmet and explain why, the may still choose not to wear one. You can tell them they don't have a choice, it's the rule, but you can't force one on them. You can threaten them and fine them, they can just ignore. When they don't pay the fine you can march them off to prison, that will stop them cycling without a helmet! At this point they have by your force truly lost their freedom. What if they choose death over freedom? It's not surprising that suicide rates in prison are high. Instead of protecting someone who values their freedom, you've now driven them to their death.
Okay this is an extreme example, but as more laws and enforcements come into place and more freedoms are impinged upon more people are starting to push back and their answer seems to be punish more. Where do we draw the line?
We can't know how many suicides are actually declarations of self ownership.
Domesticated people don't understand.
A soft, invisible prison is still a prison; even if you desperately avoid rattling the bars.
Awesome post !
There's way too many giving themselves the privilege of judgment over others these days. I'm no-ones pet and don't expect to be treated that way & I don't treat others that way myself.
If someone is old enough to think for themselves & their choices aren't harming anyone else then kay serra serra I say.
I like that you took the nanny-state argument one step further. This nannyist system isn't just trying to control us as children. It's trying to control us as pets. Great analogy.
Excellent post. I have read CS Lewis but never came across this quote by him. I will put it in my quote file.
H.L. Mencken said something similar: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule over it."
The screwtape letters are particularly good.
Now that I have read. Good stuff, the kind the world needs now more than ever.
Oh wow... just shows you need to read the entire post and not get hung up on certain parts. This is what I wrote when I got here.
Dude, I love you, but I can't agree with this.
Who are you, or I, or anyone else to decide what is good or bad for someone? Someone had a serious jetski accident on the weekend, should they be outlawed? By this reckoning then someone else can make that decision. Paul Walker, from Fast and the furious, said if one day the speed kills me, then don't be sad as I was smiling.
But you turned it round and I can completely, wholeheartedly, agree with you man.
Well done!
Please remain seated until the ride has come to a complete stop :)
I want to be successful. I want to be successful by myself. I want to be the sole owner of my success and I want to be proud of having become successful on my own. But the only way that can happen is if I'm allowed to fail, to make mistakes to learn from. If I'm not allowed to learn and grow through mistakes and bad choices and failures, I'll always be counting on someone else for my success. I can't find the pride in that.
I promise to take responsibility for my own actions, even if I get hurt in the process, if you promise to stop protecting me from myself.
Damn. Wrong username.
Should be @powerfullx5.
You nailed it.
Lol, thanks. 😄
Great post and I love the personal pictures you decided to share with it.
Personally, I might be considered a bit of statist by the standard of this generally anarchist community, but this is something I agree with 100%. If your decisions affect only or mainly you, it doesn't matter if they are good or poor ones, you should be totally free to make them and it's nobody business to force you off bad behavior. If you want to live dangerously, as long as you are not directly harming others, by all means do so, it's your business, not mine or the state's.
On a bit of an unrelated note, I nominated you for a challenge I'm trying to start and I really hope you wouldn't mind. It's a challenge slash contest, but everybody is always free to totally forgo the contest part and just do the challenge if they feel it has any value. I'm not letting you know to get an upvote on it or something like that, but to apologize for tapping you on that and to mention that I'd really love to read a post from you like the one suggested in the challenge.
Thanks Dave. I'll give it a look.
Great post Matt. Your pictures are very challenging for me. If there is one thing that has really questioned my libertarian leanings it is becoming a parent of young children. At what point (or age) do you think a person should be trusted to make their own decisions about safety?
Once they've moved out of home.
"As long as you're living under my roof..."
Until then, its up to the parents to decide.
That would be interesting to explain to a 24 year old "child"....it's hard enough with a 16 year old, but the exact word's I used last week, LOL
Great post, it remind's me a bit of the time before litigation skyrocketed.
Yeah, duty of care is an interesting concept.
Party A says that Party B has to ensure the bodily integrity of Party C, regardless of the wishes of Party C.
I can't build a huge, exciting, but potentially dangerous amusement park, and allow admission only to adults, and only with the stipulation that you ride at your own risk.
You have rights that you can't waive. In that regard, Party A is the one treating you as a pet, interjecting in the relationship between Parties B and C.
The world doesn't think were the nanny country for nothing.