Sandra Dodd

Bernadette Lynn wrote, on facebook in a discussion about freedom:

One problem with thinking in terms of a balance between your freedom and other peoples' is that there's an inherent conflict - more freedom for someone else means less freedom for you, which sets the stage for resentment and antagonism, even if it's not overt or conscious.

Thinking in terms of choice means that every action is weighed against other possible actions and you choose the better or more positive choice. You get to make a positive move every time.

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Facebook is like hanging around the bowling alley when it's really crowded, compared to this discussion. I thought this really good point should have a higher class of audience. (Even though some of you are in both places... you know what I mean, I guess.)

Sandra

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Virginia Warren

-=-
> One problem with thinking in terms of a balance between your freedom and
other peoples' is that there's an inherent conflict - more freedom for
someone else means less freedom for you, which sets the stage for
resentment and antagonism, even if it's not overt or conscious.
-=-

Another thing that I think makes it hard to talk about �freedom� is that
the word is overloaded--it has a lot of different meanings. It's
practically impossible to know what a person means by �freedom� without a
great deal of discussion on that point alone. Also, some people experience
requests for clarification as attacks, and employ all the classic defense
mechanisms, especially dismissal (�that's just
[semantics|nitpicking|pedantery|your opinion|my opinion]�).

There's a logical fallacy, it probably has a name, where you argue as
though the person who claims to disagree with you secretly agrees with you
but is arguing for some other reason, frequently identified as �just to
make me mad�. This fallacy manifests itself in these kinds of discussions
by people behaving as though everyone �should� know what they mean when
they use a vague, unwieldy, overloaded word like "freedom" or "education"
or "rights".

Virginia


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