Freedom and safety
Freedom and safety
Today I was attending a lecture about blockchain and cryptocurrencies and the lecturer said that freedom and safety don't go together. You can have more freedom by abandoning safety. Would you agree?
I don't know. I think security today, has been awfully abused because I really don't see for example, why the fuck Google needs my street address to "feel secure". It's small things like that, that really make you question.
There's something about this lecture that doesn't sit right with me and I think it's because they're bringing into irrelevant things that don't mesh with the idea of freedom or security.
If you pay attention to politics, you'll start seeing a pattern of "we're keeping you safe" as an excuse to rob you of your freedoms. This really ramped up in the USA after 9/11. It's when spying on Americans by our own government became legalized. We were afraid, and we gave up some freedoms for the idea of safety.
...and now we know we're no more safe than we were before.
I think there can sometimes be tension between these two ideals, as with any two disparate goals but I think they are often more aligned than people think. Freedom from terror and violence is an important freedom as well.
Not technically, because there are scenarios where you can give up some freedom or safety without improving the other in return (and therefore restore freedom/safety afterwards without diminishing the other)… but it’s a close enough approximation to be useful, kinda like classical physics vs general relativity.
If you want to be more detailed, you can look at “freedom to” vs “freedom from”. This has its own limitations, but it’s precise enough while still being useful.
For example, assuming everyone involved is constrained by the same rules:
You can’t have the freedom to fire a gun in the air, and have freedom from your neighbor’s falling bullets.
You can’t have the freedom to drive a tank down the street, and have freedom from fear of being squashed as a pedestrian.
You can be free and safe with the right weapon arsenal. 🦅🇺🇸
It's possible to have neither freedom nor safety
gestures around broadly
Yes, that's the entire basis for the idea of the social contract. That you give up a little bit of freedom in exchange for security from living in a society.
Social contract theory is statist propaganda. Even before I knew anything about politics or political theory I was so confused by this idea.
It’s just there to create an illusion of consent for state oppression. Even though there’s no realistic way to opt out, and we never even decided to opt in in the first place.
What kind of crazy contract is that?
You're talking about trade offs and maximization.
That's not reality yet. In reality, we have less freedom AND less safety than we could. There's plenty of room to increase both.
Once we get to a maximized state, then tradeoffs are necessary. But we're very far from that at the moment.
They're not mutually exclusive. Some issues would increase one of those factors without decreasing the other, while other issues result in a slight lessening of one in exchange for an increase in the other. Different agencies and parts of society handle different issues, and it's not reasonable to expect optimal progression, much as it would be appreciated.
they are probably using the modern interpretation of this those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety
Read my mind.
If you assume freedom is the ability to move about the world as you wish, then you may need to abandon complete safety, take risks, to accomplish your goals.
Some risks will limit your freedoms. Natural consequences, such as injuries, will literally limit your physical ability. Logical consequences may be exclusion from society or loss of assets. Freedom may be to pursue those risks despite the consequences to yourself or others.
In the context of crypto, my understanding is that the intent was to provide both freedom and safety through anonymity. If we look at freedoms looked at as illegal, there is an implied safety through obfuscation. There have been instances where people have been traced through crypto, so I do not completely trust it.
If you are referring to financial safety and security, it sounds as if the speaker is trying to mash words together to make it sound like people should take risks with their money to pursue their freedom. If people are using metaphors instead of solid language to sell you something, RUN.