At Schiphol Airport, the loudspeakers near the treadmills keep repeating: “Mind your step“. This analogy came to mind when thinking about the Third Law of Motion by Isaac Newton: for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction (source). In other words: what goes around, comes around.
Nowadays, it’s common practice to propose to forbid, limit or restrict the words (ie, speech) or actions (eg, protests) by groups or persons you dislike (eg, us versus them). Examples: the cancel culture, Canada restricting freedom of speech in 2022, the 2022 Canadian trucker protests, or Democrats vs Republicans.
Those people fail to realise that Power is always limited in time (eg, death, elections). Once others come into Power, they will use such freedom restrictions against the ones who proposed these. In general: when limiting the freedom of others then yours will be next. Hence, my choice of the song below.
It’s ironic that American and European liberals seem more likely to restrict the freedom of others, while the Latin word ‘liber‘ (in Liberalism) means ‘free‘. I suppose liberals are often more knowledgeable, which made them arrogant towards ignorant “others”. Example from a 2016 speech by Hillary Clinton:
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They’re racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. [] Now, some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully, they are not America.”
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016
Actually, I could add many ignorant Republican phrases but a recent one seems enough: the 2021 Capitol attack was a “legitimate political discourse“, according to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
The Knowledge domain in the Love, Knowledge & Power triangle seems occupied by liberal-left thinkers. Once in a while, you’ll notice some conservative thinkers, like Ayn Rand, Gad Saad or Jordan Peterson. To me, their views are challenging, provoking and refreshing.
My ideological views (if any) can be summarized by a Dutch expression: “Het hart links en de portemonnee rechts dragen”. This translates like: carry the heart at the left and the wallet at the right. I believe in a social market economy. For decades, I used to be a European conservative liberal but not anymore.
The 2019-2022 pandemic revealed that conservative and left liberals do not care about individual freedom and/or small businesses. It’s astonishing how they decide about other people’s lives, while receiving their monthly paycheck. They should not forget that what goes around, comes around.
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (1998) by Manic Street Preachers
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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