2 ms·

>Anonymity inside a big mass of people provides freedom from nosy neighbors and relatives I partially disagree. I think you are assuming a set of specific cir

>Anonymity inside a big mass of people provides freedom from nosy neighbors and relatives I partially disagree. I think you are assuming a set of specific circumstances that often apply but are not universal. I think it depends on what you want to use your freedom to do. On a timeline measured in months or more there is no anonymity anywhere. If whatever it is you do is so socially unacceptable as to be a problem people will take notice. What changes is the criteria you need to meet to become a problem and how big of a problem you need to be to get attention. My observation is that diversity increases freedom and community resources available to enforce social norms decrease freedom. dense cities are high in both, rural areas are low in both. So in the city it is usually much harder to be the tall nail but if you are the tall nail you will get hit much harder and in BFE you're probably a problem but not a big enough one for it to be worth the community's resources to go after. This is why various religious and political fundamentalists/extremest communities tend to wind up living in a compound somewhere rural (they're big enough and violate norms enough to be noticed anywhere, best to go somewhere the community probably can't justify harassing you too much) and when they do get bothered it's often by the state not the local community/government. (if it's not obvious, I'm defining freedom as "the ability to do things that most other people don't like without bad things happening to you").

narag 7y ago
I think it depends on what you want to use your freedom to do. Sure. I didn't mean anything illegal or inmoral, just different enough from the norm as to make the usual idiots to tell you. If you don't know what I'm talking about, chances are you haven't lived in a small community.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Yeah above a certain population density you're mostly free from your neighbors gossiping at church about your project boat yard ornament or marijuana cultivating hobby or loud parties because you don't know your neighbors and probably don't go to the same church but the trade-off is that if you do step out of line they sick the local bylaw czar on you instead. This is what I mean by more resources to track down minor deviance from social norms. Some things are more tolerated in the city but the trade-off is that the things that are not tolerated are addressed by the government (which means fines that will make you destitute if you don't step in line and men with guns who will put you in a cage if you don't pay). By contrast you can usually tell the small town busybodies to pound sand and unless you're actually negatively affecting a lot of people with whatever it is you do then it's probably a non-issue. Those people are always crying wolf about things and nobody takes them seriously because everybody knows that most of their complaints are unfounded or not serious enough to be worth dedicating the community's limited resources (at a small enough town level the distinction between private action and government action does get a bit blurry) to doing anything about it.

narag 7y ago

I think it depends on what you want to use your freedom to do. Sure. I didn't mean anything illegal or inmoral, just different enough from the norm as to make the usual idiots to tell you. If you don't know what I'm talking about, chances are you haven't lived in a small community.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Yeah above a certain population density you're mostly free from your neighbors gossiping at church about your project boat yard ornament or marijuana cultivating hobby or loud parties because you don't know your neighbors and probably don't go to the same church but the trade-off is that if you do step out of line they sick the local bylaw czar on you instead. This is what I mean by more resources to track down minor deviance from social norms. Some things are more tolerated in the city but the trade-off is that the things that are not tolerated are addressed by the government (which means fines that will make you destitute if you don't step in line and men with guns who will put you in a cage if you don't pay). By contrast you can usually tell the small town busybodies to pound sand and unless you're actually negatively affecting a lot of people with whatever it is you do then it's probably a non-issue. Those people are always crying wolf about things and nobody takes them seriously because everybody knows that most of their complaints are unfounded or not serious enough to be worth dedicating the community's limited resources (at a small enough town level the distinction between private action and government action does get a bit blurry) to doing anything about it.