"We can kick people out of our club, if they break the rules they agreed to when they joined. You can form a "Fight Club", in which every member consents to have the snot kicked out of him. You can even form a club that plays "paintball" using live ammo--as long as everyone consents to being shot at, and no third parties are exposed to danger."
It took me a while and some time outdoors after reading to realize what you are getting at with this.
You are trying to say that freedom supersedes life and human potential, as evidenced by the fight club or shooting people club. In your mind these freedoms contradict my position on freedom, and force the logically confounded and/or mystical reading.
I disagree, and not because I'm cognitively dissonant; it's actually because I'm *not* cognitively dissonant.
I disagree because I think that for any individual to avoid being a tool of petty fools and posturing tyrants, he (or she) must - MUST - deal with the fact that he (or she) CAN, and absolutely HAS the freedom RIGHT NOW, to be Mr. Self-Destruct, fuck the laws.
YOU can stop eating. You can kill yourself by doing so, or come damn near close to it, just to try.
YOU can go lay on the train tracks at night.
YOU can hang out with junkies and buy shit that will fuck you up FOR EVER.
That is YOUR fucking power. Deal with it. YOU can say, screw it all, I am taking a gun and driving to the forest and bringing my buddies and we are going to play "paint" ball. With goddamned real bullets. Go fucking do it. You think forest ranger man is going to find you?
Senator Kennedy cannot freaking stop that without putting you in a cage. He CAN NOT stop you if you want to do it RIGHT NOW. And if he puts you in a cage? You've got a three pound universe in your skull he can never control without YOUR permission. He can stick ice picks in it, he can destroy it, HE CANNOT CONTORL IT WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION. DON'T FUCKING GIVE THEM THAT PERMISSION. You give them that permission, 1984's boot stamps on a human face. For-fucking-EVER. Is this clear?
This was the ONLY thing that could have saved Winston Smith. Gandhi knew it. Someone can torture me, and I'll feel pain. Boo-freakin-hoo. Someone can kill me; he'll get a goddamned pile of bones. Someone hijacks my brain and my potency ONLY with MY permission. Fucking period.
This is the source of real freedom. This is the source of individual power. This is the source of anything that differentiates an individual human being from a stick used by a chimp to pick at grubs.
You will be NOTHING other than a stick for a chimp in a suit, or pile of bones, if you don't deal with this. Take the fucking gun, go to the fucking forest, load the damn thing, Ted Kennedy WILL NOT stop you, this is NOT about Senator Kennedy, he is beside the point, he is a chimp in a suit, put the damn thing to you head, and make it all YOUR decision.
The first amendment comes before the second for a damned good reason. A man with a gun and a hijacked brain is someone else's tool. A man with own damn brain is the source of any freedom, power, or human life that can last more than two minutes.
It is like we're living in a book. You get that three pound page in your head. You write that page. The book starts with the big bang, it ends with entropy. But that is YOUR page - and your culture and your inheritance are your ink. Everything more than chimps starts from fucking THERE. OWN THAT. Before you give half a care about property rights or even gun rights, OWN THAT PAGE. For the rest of the time, this moment on, that that page always *will have* existed, WRITE IT YOURSELF.
Or don't. You're free not to. Take your brain-breaking, irrational, confounded definition of freedom, that says the word 'freedom' in "freedom to kill yourself" is somehow, magically, inherently fundamentally different from 'freedom' in "freedom to kill someone else and go unpunished" and let nuts use fear to break your brain into shards. That's your choice; scream 2+2=5 at the top of your lungs for all I care, while cowering in the corner from big bad forest ranger guy, who might interfere with your "paint" ball. Just don't confuse my 2+2=4 for an infringement on your property.
Chapter 1, THE EPISTLE TO THE PARANOIDS
--Lord Omar
1. Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear--and, behold, do ye now complain that ye lack FREEDOM!
2. Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, lamenting that ye've been left to fight alone.
3. All Chaos was once yer kingdom; verily, held ye dominion over the entire Pentaverse, but today ye was sore afraid in dark corners, nooks, and sink holes.
4. O how the darknesses do crowd up, one against the other, in ye hearts! What fear ye more that what ye have wroughten?
5. Verily, verily I say unto you, not all the Sinister Ministers of the Bavarian Illuminati, working together in multitudes, could so entwine the land with tribulation as have yer baseless warnings.
You are trying to say that freedom supersedes life and human potential, as evidenced by the fight club or shooting people club. In your mind these freedoms contradict my position on freedom, and force the logically confounded and/or mystical reading. I'm not sure whether I understand you or not. If some idiot wants to commit suicide, do you believe it's your business to stop him? I don't mean trying to talk him out of it--I sincerely hope you'd do that--but to arrest him? Lock him up? Commit him? Note that there is a legitimate question how to deal with the truly insane. Ignore flat-out crazy people for the moment.
If you do believe that, and you probably do, then where does it end? Smokers are "killing themselves"; why don't you go force them to stop? So are people who overeat; are you lacking in compassion, or do you plan to stop them? Drinking--don't get me started! I've cared for enough nursing-home patients to know what drinking does to you. Are you prepared to reinstate prohibition for the people's own good?
Senator Kennedy cannot freaking stop that without putting you in a cage. He CAN NOT stop you if you want to do it RIGHT NOW.
You're suddenly getting highly emotional, so I'll take a break for the moment. What personal experience with suicide is prompting this intense reaction? Whatever it was, you have my sympathy and condolence. Note, however, that FR doesn't allow bad language. Repeated dropping of the F-bomb will get your posts deleted, and might lead to a brush with a moderator.