Knot4Prophet.com

Freedom and Brutal Equality

This is the Freedom page on Knot4Prophet.com. This site promotes Freedom of individuality within the constraints of Natural Limit of Freedom as outlined below. Knot4Prophet.com is actively involved in maintaining and promoting individual liberty and Freedom.

Freedom of Speech is of paramount importance to Knot4Prophet.com. Also promoted are various other Freedoms including but not limited to Sexual Freedom, Religious Freedom, Freedom of Expression and Biological Freedom. Analysis of these Freedoms and more are all found here on Knot4Prophet.com.

Everything here is free. Just like your will.

Free to act. Free to be acted upon.

Do What Thou Wilt.

You are free to do as you please at any time.

What is it about Freedom that so attracts our emotions and allegiance? Is anyone truly free?

Let's consider this a moment:

free·dom [free-duhm]

the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.
exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
the power to determine action without restraint.
political or national independence.
personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom.
exemption from the presence of anything specified (usually fol. by from): freedom from fear.
the absence of or release from ties, obligations, etc.
ease or facility of movement or action: to enjoy the freedom of living in the country.
frankness of manner or speech.
general exemption or immunity: freedom from taxation.
the absence of ceremony or reserve.
a liberty taken.
a particular immunity or privilege enjoyed, as by a city or corporation: freedom to levy taxes.
civil liberty, as opposed to subjection to an arbitrary or despotic government.
the right to enjoy all the privileges or special rights of citizenship, membership, etc., in a community or the like.
the right to frequent, enjoy, or use at will: to have the freedom of a friend's library.
Philosophy. the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination.

A careful examination of this phenomenon we call Freedom shows that the common lexicon presents the abstraction of being free always in relation to what something is being freed from. What this implies is that Freedom is defined by its limits. Does this make sense, though?

Is there really any freedom if there is nothing from which to be free?

Let's imagine no restraints on anything, where everything has total Freedom.

Impossible.

The only way any entity could have total Freedom from all restraints would be if it were the only thing to exist. So there really is no true, total freedom whatsoever.

Now let's imagine a universe full of entities acting at will with no regard for any other entity:

Chaos.

Freedom without limits leads to chaos. And not the type of chaos theory that deals with strange attractors and double bifurcations. I am referring to the classical definition of chaos:

cha·os [kā'ŏs']

a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.
any confused, disorderly mass.

We all want freedom. Freedom from restraint. Freedom from pain, abuse, death. Freedom to express ourselves. Freedom to move, to speak, to live, to love. And even the Freedom to die.

No one is truly and totally free. You are bound to your flesh. Your flesh is bound by gravity. You are free to exercise your will within the constraints, the limitations of the flesh. You cannot walk in molten lava and expect to maintain your Freedom. There are physical limits on your Freedom.

All living creatures are living under these similar constraints on their Freedom.

The Freedom of which we speak about is Freedom to exercise our will within these physical constraints, physical limits on our Freedom. Total Freedom of entities even within a constrained system leads to chaos. All humans doing anything they pleased within the physical constraints of this reality would lead to total anarchy.

What is the end result of chaos, of total anarchy?

Suicide.

If I can expect to do anything I want with no regard to anyone else's Freedom, then I can certainly expect to receive the same from everyone else, if only because of the example I set alone.

Where does this all lead us?

The Natural Limit of Freedom

"Your rights and abilities to exercise your freedom extend only so far as they do not inhibit or preclude anyone else's right to freedom."

Knot4Prophet

Some of us may wonder where our Freedom ends and another's begins.

Legal systems have historically defined and enforced our evolving definition of Freedom by consensus.

Laws exist to both protect and restrict people's Freedom.

What criteria can be used to discern which laws definitely adhere to the Natural Limit of Freedom and which laws may not adhere to this natural limit?

Again: consensus.

Not national consensus... but rather international, cross-cultural consensus.

A prime example of a crime for which laws were passed to maintain our Freedom is murder. Murder is against the law and punishable by loss of Freedom to the perpetrator in practically every nation/culture on Earth. Murder is an example of a crime for which laws are made to punish/restrict an individual which definitely adheres to the Natural Limit of Freedom. If I murder people indiscriminately I can expect that people will want to murder me.

A contrasting example, one without any clear consensus across nations/cultures, is the crime of drug use. Many cultures allow or even promote drug use. Even modern Western society which has laws against some drugs, condones the use of other drugs. Pharmaceuticals, tobacco, amino acids and herbal remedies are but a few of the drugs that are legal. Others, such as marijuana and methamphetamine are illegal to possess, traffic or use. The contrast in this example is that there is no standard, across cultures, for which drugs ought to be illegal and which ones should not. All cultures allow the use of some drugs.

Drug laws are an example of an unnatural limit on our Freedom. All of them. The lack of consensus across cultures alone is indicative of the ambiguity of laws against drug use.

Knot4Prophet.com promotes all individual Freedom that adheres to the Natural Limit of Freedom.

Knot4Prophet.com condemns any legal or social limits placed on individuals that are an unnatural limit on their Freedom, limits that are not universally accepted constraints on our Freedom, across cultures, such as "illegal" laws against drug use.

Everyone is already a drug user whether they choose to believe it or not, unless you have never taken a prescription, never puffed a cigarette, never ate processed foods, never drank a coffee, etc.

Don't be a hypocrite.

You take drugs and you have no right to tell anyone else what they can put into their body. It's their body, their life, their Freedom to alter their state of awareness how they choose. If that altered state leads them to behaviour that limits others' Freedom, then the legal system would be well suited to deal with those individuals.

No one can stop you from going to a gas station and legally purchasing a liter of gasoline and going home and soaking a rag with it and sniffing away till you're drooling. Even if you were to stumble down outside into your yard, carrying your gas jug and rag, you couldn't even be busted for possession of the gasoline, though the act of sniffing it is ostensibly a crime. And gasoline is a manufactured, readily available "drug" used by a small fraction of society. Compare that to a naturally growing, non-manufactured plant called cannabis. The laws against possession, use and trafficking in cannabis are criminal themselves.

Freedom is coveted by all. All Freedom is limited. The Natural Limit of Freedom should be the only legally enforceable limit on Freedom.

Any laws which are inconsistent across cultures are most likely inconsistent with the Natural Limit of Freedom and should not be laws at all.

Knot4Prophet