Gothic.net News Horror Gothic Lifestyle Fiction Movies Books and Literature Dark TV VIP Horror Professionals Professional Writing Tips Links Gothic Forum




Go Back   Gothic.net Community > Boards > Politics

Politics "Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -and both commonly succeed, and are right." -H.L. Menken

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 04-28-2009, 08:26 PM   #1
girasol
 
girasol's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 291
Blog Entries: 7
freedom and liberty

So, I am in the middle of writing an essay on freedom and liberty. Whether they are interchangeable terms or whether there is a significant difference of meaning - is there anything politically at stake?

Just wanted to know other people's thoughts on this.
girasol is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-28-2009, 08:36 PM   #2
Godslayer Jillian
 
Godslayer Jillian's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: El Paso, Texas/ Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua
Posts: 9,203
Freedom and liberty are synonymous. They are exactly the same.
One merely is a Germanic word and one a Romance word.

I wouldn't suggest you doing your essay on that. Anything you could say would just be bullshit.
Instead of that, how about writing about the vagueness of those words.

Think about it.
Protestantism and the puritans wanted religious freedom, but they were racists, antisemitic, sexists, and hierarchical.
America allegedly fought for freedom, but this was only economic freedom and the war was only backed by a third of the population.
The French Revolution is supposed to be an icon of freedom, nevertheless this was merely rhetoric, and the masses who fought for this cause were not only used as cannon fodder but also repressed and killed by Robespierre.
The Bolshevik Revolution was to be the ultimate emancipation of the worker classes, and yet their economic and social shackles were replaced by those of an impersonal bureaucracy.
Most first wave feminists couldn't have cared less for the problems of black women or latino women.
Martin Luther King was a homophobe.

If one does not fight for total liberation, one is not fighting for liberation at all.
__________________
"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world.

I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker."
-Mikhail Bakunin

Quote:
Originally Posted by George Carlin
People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.
Godslayer Jillian is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-28-2009, 09:17 PM   #3
Drake Dun
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Posts: 1,178
Yeah, write something about freedom - not the word "freedom". Maybe you can talk about cases in which "freedom" considered as an abstract ideal takes on a life of its own and loses all connection to actual freedom, so that "freedom" ends up on the wrong side of freedom. Like... we're America, and we're about freedom and bringing freedom to the world, so when our intelligence service subverts a free election in a South American country, that's increasing freedom.

Last edited by Drake Dun; 04-28-2009 at 09:19 PM. Reason: Fixed English mistake.
Drake Dun is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-29-2009, 02:33 AM   #4
Beneath the Shadows
 
Beneath the Shadows's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Nowhere
Posts: 1,835
Technically speaking, the words mean the same thing. The definition of liberty is freedom, and vice-versa. But I personally tend to look at them as different concepts. Liberty is the claim that you have the right to do something. Freedom is the ability to actually go out and do it.

Of course, that's basically when looking at the words as nothing more than abstract concepts.

I guess, in the end, that means absolutely nothing.
__________________
"It's a strange sensation, dying... no matter how many times it happens to you, you never get used to it."

last.fm

Help my MiniCity grow
Help my MiniCity's industry
Beneath the Shadows is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-29-2009, 05:31 AM   #5
girasol
 
girasol's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 291
Blog Entries: 7
I can actually argue that they are interchangeable. I just need to use a lot of words and talk shit.

Unfortunately I can't spin away from the given topics we have to choose from. Otherwise I could think of a whole lot of other much more interesting topics to write about.

There is a theory that freedom and liberty ARE actually different - I got pretty bored trying to sift through proper resources and found a random discussion on it in some blog.

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005081.html

Anyway, now I am doing an entirely different topic because I don't think I can summon the power of bulshitting to make up the word count of my essay or not to do the exact opposite and recieve a 'interesting but...' grade.
girasol is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-29-2009, 05:34 AM   #6
girasol
 
girasol's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 291
Blog Entries: 7
Oh, and I would never say ' I have the liberty to say what I please' I would say that I were free to say whatever I pleased. I might be wrong but maybe because things I have been readin swayed me - I think that people are always free - they are free to choose and face consequences. But not always liberated. Liberty is when you can do something and not recieve a negative outcome. That is what I grasped from all of this anyway.

Thanks though.
girasol is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:13 AM.