re: #663 Ian MacGregor

Cato the elder.

What is nonsensical about the statement? The ability to do whatever we please is license not freedom. I am not free to steal a car or to do things which are legal but unjust. Indeed if I use my freedom to do bad things, I’ll soon find myself a slave of the bad things I do.

Ian: I think Cato checked out for the evening, but I would argue this…

We are not free to do things that are illegal, but we are free to do things that are unjust.

This is, I would argue, the irreducible basis of a secular democracy as opposed to a theocracy. “Illegal” is a secular term, defined by the legal system. “Unjust” is a philosophical and religious term, and is defined differently by each individual. Being forced to live according to what each particular individual in power over my life considered “just” or “unjust” at any given moment is my idea of a Kafka nightmare, and we see it happening in societies around the world who have gone the theocracy route.

If I become a slave of the bad things I do, it should be the laws of physics that punish me for it, not an individual who considers him/herself more “just” than me. That way lies madness.

Just my two cents.