On being free.

[ShortyLong]

   I am a free man; a sovereign man. I rule myself. I rule no one else. It is for me to choose the path of my life. If I am to choose my path, I must accept responsibility for my choices. I will let others choose their paths. We may interact in our chosen paths, but such interaction must be voluntary. No force must be used. We can join each other as partners. We can create communities. We are social animals. It is good we should meet. Anything is possible, where force is refused. I will continue my path. It is the natural way. All humans are born free. We are not slaves. To rule another is to create a slave.
   You may have more power than me, I say to those who would attempt to rule me, but I am free because I have decided to be free. You may punish my body, yet my mind and my soul are mine. You can never rule them.

   Shorty Long

[Free libertarian]

Bump.   

So, when the gubmint gets all them mind reader technology devices up and running, are we gonna be free to think about stuff and will what we're not free to think about be defined?   

Cuz every now and then, I'll think about stuff like the Shorty Long post here and I'm not sure how to turn those thoughts off.

[Tom Sawyer]

It would be much safer to give up on such thoughts...
If you are unable to do it on your own, your mental health professional can prescribe something to dim that troublesome independent streak.

[Free libertarian]

It would be much safer to give up on such thoughts...
If you are unable to do it on your own, your mental health professional can prescribe something to dim that troublesome independent streak.

Yes!  That's it!  "Give up those thoughts"!
I bet there'll even be black market decoy thoughts developed that we can implant and project to cover our inner thoughts.   

I'm gonna go around thought broadcasting the ground ball that went thru Bill Buckner's legs when the Red Sox blew the '86 world series. Besides I have a lot of experience thinking about baseball already.   

[Russell Kanning]

my computer keeps recommending to me VR glasses .... like you can pretend you are free, while working on The Man's Plantation

[Tom Sawyer]

my computer keeps recommending to me VR glasses .... like you can pretend you are free, while working on The Man's Plantation

I think that's why computer games are so popular with youngsters... Cuz the real world ain't free.