Remembering What Freedom Means

Two of the recent Nobel Prize winners really criticized the "misinformation", fake news, and the "toxic sludge" that social media has become. But I see this as the price of being free.

The only way to be free of the "fake news" that we encounter is to give someone the authority to decide for us what is and isn't "fake news". But then that person would have the power of dictatorship over us, deciding what information we received, and we would no longer be free. 

In a way it is easier to not be free than to be free, just let someone else do our thinking for us. Part of the price of being free is to have to be informed and sort through all the information that we receive in order to determine what is and isn't "fake news".

Of course humans are biased on what "fake news" is. If we see an opinion that we already agree with, or that casts us in a good light, we are more likely to accept that opinion without scrutiny. But if we see an opinion that we do agree with, or which casts us in a bad light, we are more likely to dismiss it as "fake news".

Another part of the price of being free is to have people around us who do not agree with us. We say that we want to be free but we want to be surrounded by people that "fit in" and agree with us. The trouble is that if we are free, because we live in a free society, then the people around us are also free and they may not think the way we do. Freedom does not mean to agree but to agree to disagree. A lot of people have difficulty with this.

There are two possible slants on freedom, "freedom to" and "freedom from". A simple example is cigarette smoking. Should one have "freedom to" smoke, or should they have "freedom from" second-hand smoke? The answer is a matter of opinion and so freedom comes down to politics as far as the exact slant it will take.

Few people want completely unhindered "freedom to", that would be anarchy or the "Law of the Jungle". So first we agree on the laws that everyone has to follow, and then we have "freedom to" from that point.

Freedom is not a panacea, it doesn't necessarily create an ideal society. It allows us to be whatever we are. The "toxic sludge" that some have derided social media as becoming can only be a reflection of what we are.

There is a compound posting, "The Meaning Of Freedom". If you would like to review it here is a link to it:

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-meaning-of-freedom_1.html?m=0