By MamaLiberty
I’d like to propose a few questions for your pondering, and encourage you to comment on them here. These questions may seem to have only complex answers, or no answers at all. I propose that the solutions to the problem are indeed complex, but the premise is actually quite simple:
- Who owns/controls your life and body? You? Or someone, something else?
- If “someone else,” by what authority? Why does someone else own you?
- Are you happy for others to own/control you? Or are you upset about it, even if you can’t see any alternative?
- Do you see an alternative? What would that be?
Think about all of the problems in the world, all the evil going on. The “wars,” and waves of hate, spite and so much more. The endless war of every tiny faction with others, natural differences between people being used to agitate for ever more hate and dysfunction everywhere. In the barrage of hate and casting blame, I suspect very few are even interested in finding a honest, rational solution.
How many even seek peace and prosperity anymore? Or are people convinced that they can/should/MUST control the lives and property of as many others as possible?
Do you think some people should control other people? Or are you willing and able to govern yourself, to control your own life and leave others to do the same?
The Price of Liberty 
Well, of course I’m a card-carrying “member of the choir” so I’d answer that I own my life and body. That makes #2 moot: there is no legitimate authority by which others may rule me. I am very unhappy that pompous half-wits presume to try to run my life, and my response is to live a moral life and take what freedoms I can when the risk seems reasonable, and to assert the right to use whatever force is necessary to oppose illegitimate attempts to control me (even if, in practice, I may or may not employ that force in any given situation, for practical or other reasons).
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Yes indeed… staying alive is certainly the bottom line of practical response to the controllers. And it seems to me, that the more I avoid any hint of participation in trying to control others, the less I have to fear in any case. But then… I don’t live in a city. 🙂
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1. Assuming a godless universe or one with free will, as opposed to a universe with a rigidly controlling, pre-destination-type deity (including but not limited to “Matrix”-like possibilities, I own my self and am entitled to control myself (but others who don’t recognize that ownership do attempt, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to control me).
2. If I’m just a pre-destined pawn in a controlled reality, by the authority of that controller/creator. Otherwise, there’s no case for such an authority.
3. If I’m just a pre-destined pawn in a controlled reality, apparently my creator/controller hasn’t decided to make me particularly concerned about that. If that’s how it is, it doesn’t upset me. Otherwise, yeah, it pisses me off that others try to control me.
4. For the predestined/controlled reality, no alternative that I know of. For other situations, ignore controllers when possible, avoid them when necessary, and if I can do neither fight them if possible and comply as little as possible if I can’t win (or at least give them a disincentive to continue with) a fight.
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Excellent, Thomas. 🙂 I don’t give any thought to being any kind of pawn, because I see no rational possibility for such authority. I was trying to leave a little wiggle room for those who put their god in that position, but I can’t see how that would work for anyone who truly understood self ownership. The Creator is a reality to me, but I was given full authority over myself at birth, along with the tools necessary to carry it out.
So, when others attempt to control me, I do my best to avoid or ignore them. I have found that there is actually very little of it I must comply with, and look always for more ways to avoid it. But, if it comes time to a fight, I am prepared to do so and won’t hesitate.
It has always been a mystery to me why so many people can’t understand self ownership, are willing to be pawns of others, accepting the so obvious lies and manipulation. The alternative is individual liberty, but so far it is a very hard sell.
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“The Creator is a reality to me, but I was given full authority over myself at birth, along with the tools necessary to carry it out.”
That’s a possibility. Another possibility is that there’s a creator who set everything up, right down to the smallest atomic reaction, at the beginning. In which case, you’ve been pre-destined to believe you have full authority over yourself, and I’ve been pre-destined to regard the question as not mattering, with the same result (I assume full authority over myself) 🙂
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LOL!! But I have never seen any supporting evidence for the creator having “set everything up,” so it’s not one of the things I contemplate. The atomic reactions will have to take care of themselves. I’m too busy living. The only way the question matters is what we choose to do about it. Live as self owners, or be pawns. 🙂
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Correct, the only way the question matters is what we do (if we control what we do).
As to the evidence for a creator setting everything up, there’s as much evidence for that as there is for there being a creator at all, absent personal experience that can’t be proven to anyone else.
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Whatever works for you, of course. 🙂 I have all the proof I need of creation in… the creation! The sunrise and sunset would be enough for me, but there is so much more. If “he” had set everything up at the start, the world would never have been so filled with mystery, change and challenges. Of that I’m sure.
“He” doesn’t attempt to control me, and I seldom attempt to even discuss it with others. Not my business what others see and believe.
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