haakondahl is convinced that if the world is a database, it needs desperately to be normalized.
I am a forty-year-old database guy and manager of people for a U.S. Navy shipyard in Japan. I am an employee of the US Government, but I think it is abundantly clear that I do not speak for the USG, I do not represent the USG in any official capacity, and that frankly, several of my expressed views are probably not smiled upon by the USG.
This is one of the things that gives me such faith in the American system. There are limits on what I can say and do, but only so long as I choose to work here. The key point is this: if I should choose to change employers or get fired, I would not go to jail or even be shunned for my views, but would simply find myself with even more freedom than before. There are trade-offs everywhere, and the beauty of the American system is that I get to decide which to trade for what.
Here are some things which may sound like contradictions:
- I am staunchly pro-Israel, and I completely support the wave of overthrows in the oppressed Arab/Muslim world.
- I support self-determinaton for all people, but I feel that supporting “halfway” measures like so-called friendly dictators is a dead end not a stepping-stone.
- I am a 50-states constitutionalist, but I work for and heartily support the federal government.
- I think that institutional Shari’a is a form of tyranny, no matter how many people manage to vote it in.
- Unstructured democracy soon devolves into a mockery of choice, with “elections” help by despots.
- Freedom and Equality are different and often opposed.
“Freedom is wasted on him who will not make others free” – that’s a sentence that should be carved in stone somewhere, but a quick search indicates it’s yours. My compliments in encapsulating a position that’s been in my head for some time. Your Facebook posts led me here, as well as at least one Ricochet post that was superb. I’ll follow you a bit more closely from here on.
By the way, I visited the shipyard in Yokosuka when I was in the Navy, back in the early 70s (USS Hassayampa, AO-145). Seeing a supertanker in dry dock is a sight that will forever be with me.
Thank you sir! I have tried to find a pithy Latin formulation, but have turned up nothing that rolls off the tongue.
For the quote itself, of course it is closely related to a whole raft of good quotes, but I wanted to capture a sense not only of justification, but of duty to make war upon the enemies of freedom. Naturally, some things should not be too tightly defined, lest we become machines, constrained to follow idiotic courses to doomed ends. But while most people have no clear idea what freedom means, they know it when they see it, and more pointedly, they know when it is not there.
I appreciate your compliment! Yokosuka is still here–says hello.
saw your post on FB I have not looked or posted since my last deployment, hope you are well and am always interested in the posts (even if I don’t agree with them)