Rent apartment in Venice ___--___--___---

Ale

2004-12-14 05:42:03 UTC

for
research.

THE NATURE OF FREEDOM

93. We are going to argue that industrial-technological society cannot
be reformed in such a way as to prevent it from progressively
narrowing the sphere of human freedom. But because "freedom" is a word
that can be interpreted in many ways, we must first make clear what
kind of freedom we are concerned with.

94. By "freedom" we mean the opportunity to go through the power
process, with real goals not the artificial goals of surrogate
activities, and without interference, manipulation or supervision from
anyone, especially from any large organization. Freedom means being in
control (either as an individual or as a member of a SMALL group) of
the life-and-death issues of one's existence; food, clothing, shelter
and defense against whatever threats there may be in one's
environment. Freedom means having power; not the power to control
other people but the power to control the circumstances of one's own
life. One does not have freedom if anyone else (especially a large
organization) has power over one, no matter how benevolently,
tolerantly and permissively that power may be exercised. It is
important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness (see
paragraph 72).

95. It is said that we live in a free society because we have a
certain number of constitutionally guaranteed rights. But these are
not as important as they seem. The degree of personal freedom that
exists in a society is determined more by the economic and
technological structure of the society than by its laws or its form of
government. [16] Most of the Indian nations of New England were
monarchies, and many of the cities of the Italian Renaissance were
controlled by dictators. But in reading about these societies