OK, I agree that certain forms of liberty are important, but that there are other forms of liberty that conflicts with LOVE, such as when we view the right of collection of goods as being a higher value than the alleviation of poverty. As long as it does not directly or indirectly interfere with the wellbeing of others (or other values of great importance), I have no problem with maximizing liberty. Your source of Galatians gets at this point.Gal 5:13 (Douay Rheims)
13 For you, brethren, have been called unto liberty: only make not liberty an occasion to the flesh, but by charity of the spirit serve one another.As for the mandatory use of a tracking device, I view its benefits as a higher value than the value of the individual’s right of privacy.
LOVE!
You may not understand this, but people can and are owned as much by their material possessions as they own them. I’m not talking about the 1%er out there, I’m talking about ordinary folks.
Look at it: you have a house → you must have a source of income to pay for the mortgage (if you have one), the maintenance, the electricity, the water, the gas, the taxes, etc., that are all associated with that house.
You have a car → you must have a source of income to pay for the gas and maintenance and insurance and tags for that car.
You have stuff → you must have a place to keep that stuff (clothes, food, computer, cell phone, etc.) so that it doesn’t get damaged by weather, eaten by vermin, or stolen. Chances are, that place to store your stuff is your home. But even a homeless person who has stuff has to protect that stuff from damage…even if that is a shopping cart and a trash bag. And just try to separate a homeless person from his shopping cart.
All of that stuff impedes your ability to be totally free, as it ties you down to one degree or another. The more stuff…the more support your stuff needs. And the bigger your requirements.
Then that locks you into a job where you are an indentured servant (e.g., a slave) of your boss or into running your own business where you place yourself in servitude to your customers.
As a free person, though, I still have the liberty to tell my boss to “take this job and shove it” (to quote the famous old David Allen Coe song). If I own my own business, I still have the right to tell a customer that I won’t do business with him. Now, there would be consequences to those decisions…but it’s my choice to do so.
In a socialist world, I would no longer have that right. In a socialist world, the government provides my dwelling, the government provides my food, and the government provides my stuff (including the clothes on my back). And I have lost the ability to say “no, thanks…I think I want to go to Africa for a few years to work with the destitute there” I no longer can say, “the weather in DC stinks…I think I’ll move to Dallas.” Or…“no thanks, I think I’d prefer to just drop out.”
To repeat, I am not talking about the Bill Gates’ or the Warren Buffets of the world. I’m just talking about ordinary folks.
And, unless there is reasonable cause to suspect I’ve committed by a crime, as validated by a court, the government does NOT have the right to track me, profile me, or do anything to me other than leave me the heck alone.
Just something to think about, Robert.
kpeople: No, no, no!
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