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> That is the single most ridiculous thing I've ever heard uttered on HN. Freedom is binary, you are either subject to coercive force being applied to deny you
by reinhardt 13y ago
> That is the single most ridiculous thing I've ever heard uttered on HN. Freedom is binary, you are either subject to coercive force being applied to deny you your freedom of choice, or you're not. You can't be "sort of free" any more than you be "sort of pregnant".
Now this is the single most ridiculous thing I've ever heard uttered on HN. Any human population with size > 1 has to compromise on this inane idealistic notion of "absolute freedom" for individuals, for the simple reason that your freedom to blast the music at 3am conflicts with my freedom to get some sleep. "Sort of free" is the best we can hope for.
- marcamillion 13y agoExactly...plus....what you consider 'freedom' someone else may consider tyranny, etc. So it is always relative. For instance, some people think living with their parents is freedom. Others think it is akin to jail. It's all relative.
- mindcrime 13y agofor the simple reason that your freedom to blast the music at 3am conflicts with my freedom to get some sleep. "Sort of free" is the best we can hope for. To be fair, there are semantic arguments about the nature of "freedom" to be had. But I, for one, don't find your example to contradict the notion of freedom as a binary proposition in the slightest. But I wouldn't contend to have a "freedom to blast music at 3am" in the first place, if you take "blast" to mean "play at such a volume that it interferes with the ability of my neighbor to sleep". shrug