Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Kinder and Gentler Materialism

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Freedom entails free will. Mill did not believe in free will. Rather, he believed everything is mechanistically, materially determined, such as by conditioning. In that respect, Mill was as much a materialist as Marx. Indeed, the new Marxism is a kinder and gentler form of faux-fool-you-communism. It's hard to get a handle on "freedom-to-be-conditioned" by elites, especially once means of mass conditioning are monopolized. Then, "slavery becomes freedom," per Orwell. There's no such thing as freedom-in-itself. There are so-called degrees of freedom availed within conserving parameters. It's a rabbit hole to try to analyze the issue in terms of individual freedom versus big government. The concern closer to human dignity relates to the centralization or decentralization of power to effect choices. Choices are always going to be conserved to a controlling context. Dignity relates to how each perspective and each family should be entertained to perceive itself as exercising power to participate in effecting choices. Regardless of whether centralizing Federales grab power to direct that lower levels of government shall do certain things or shall not do certain things, Federales are about centralizing power. Better is to provide that decisions shall be made at the lowest appropriate level. Problem is, that is not subject to mathematical analysis. But it is subject to broad checks and balances. Federales cannot very well GIVE power to subordinates to effect their own decisions unless and until subordinates show the WILL to TAKE such power. A way to take such power is to demand and institutionalize power to recall federal officials.

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