Personal freedom and the State. There’s a controversial subject.
The State – like the ideas of Nation, God or Money – is a fiction created out of the minds of men. It has no substance other than what people believe or want it to have. If they all stop believing in it then it will cease to exist.
However, as it is a fiction, it can be whatever it wants to be – whatever the people want it to be.
It serves the purpose of unifying and enabling.
These fictions have enabled human beings to live together and work together in huge numbers successfully. To that end the State, Nation, Money, Leaders and God have all been very successful. Without them everything falls apart, nothing gets done, there is conflict and chaos. We cannot live like that.
I think the fiction of State works very well. It is highly successful. But it requires compromise and many people rebel against the strictures it imposes.
I don’t mind – as long as it affords me my personal freedom. I like it big – delivering the things I want efficiently – law, order, education, infrastructure, health, justice. I accept that these are not perfect by any means and will work to improve them. Without the State we would not have these things.
In the meantime I am free to live, interact with my friends, enjoy nature, art, music, say what I want, travel, enjoy a comfort of life, have my own religious and political views and not have the State interfere too much in my life.
I like the fiction.