Thursday, February 27, 2014

Morals and entropy

For most of my life, I have felt that the frontiers of human freedom have not been pushed forward far enough.  You can never have enough equality and freedom.  As long as your freedom does not impinge on someone else's, then have at it.  Ah, but there is the rub.  How do we define freedom?  Does one man's freedom lead to the diminishment of another's?  The fight over "religious freedom" in Arizona and other states is a case in point.  The recently vetoed bill would have allowed anyone to discriminate against others based on their religious views.   As one critic put it, anyone could refuse service to virtually anyone else they claimed espoused views or practices they disapproved of.   The bill was aimed squarely at the LGBT community, but was so ambiguous as to be the generator of social chaos.  Instead of greater freedom, the effect of the act was to generate less freedom.   It would seem that most people are uncomfortable with free will.  The strictures of society and religion are built to constrain.   It would seem whenever freedom is widely distributed, more strain is placed on society.   Does that mean we are doomed to collapse into a new feudalism with a rigidly structured society, or will we finally break free and allow our better natures to triumph.

No comments:

Post a Comment