The greatest liberty is the right to change yourself.
Recently I've put on a few pics of women, the lovely creatures, and get concerned comments from Nick Drew and Pej. This is entirely a natural response, but it is also an example of what I call the homeostatic principle. You know: try to lose weight and people say you're not fat, just pleasantly plump; forswear alcohol or tobacco, and they advise you to cut down a little instead, but just for now go on, have one etc.
We worry (rightly, of course) about the tyranny of big government, but there is also the long, slow, grinding tyranny of the small (and small-minded) community, and the dysfunctional family. And we, too, are so often, unconsciously and instinctively, the oppressors.
Simone de Beauvoir (who was led a dance right royally by her liberated lover Sartre) said that every book is a cry for help. Mostly, that cry will go unanswered, and few will rally to your home-made flag. We enjoy our blogging, but delude ourselves if we think the world will change much as a result, or perhaps should change much.
If you want a major, exhilarating change, go for action direct: change your own life. And if you are a libertarian, watch for how even you try to hold others back.
4 comments:
I hope I never have the effect of holding other people back!
It's not about anyone in particular, Cherrypie, it's about a natural tendency to keep things as they are. Mostly that's right, but it can become limiting.
Maybe you should feel proud that you are held to such high standards by your fellow bloggers?
We've got used to you that way.
Perahps, Wolfie; though it would be nice not to be thought stuffy. Perhaps one should begin by being totally outrageous, so as to set the boundaries as wide as possible.
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