| Viper1 said: You're asking for people to pass internal judgement on a potential desire that is impossible to achieve. The human nature of hedonism and reduction of pains suggests that people would choose absolute desire yet at the same time it's human nature to feel pride which suggest we want to achieve our desires through effort. However, I don't think this relates at all to the "freedom" that people demand. |
Freedom and other political and economic concepts are mental constructs people use to understand and manage the world they live in. It is a way to organize data they receive from the world. So, in light of this, one approach to understand what people want is to provide a theoretical ideal state that would map to this, and see if it is what people are really after. The impossible makes the ideals more clear in this context.
I would say, in light of this, if enough people were given stuff to placate their appetites and desires, in ways they didn't find personally destructive, a state could be one that could ultimately end up oppressive, and people wouldn't know it or care to know. And in this, that is what I was asking about, if it really is freedom people value or merely the placating of appetites and desires.
Next up, an analysis of Brave New World.
