Two Freedoms
Walking by the FDR memorial yesterday, I saw Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" carved in stone.
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Religion
Freedom from Fear
Freedom from Want
Norman Rockwell, the famous Saturday Evening Post illustrator made paintings of all of them (see above links). Growing up, my Mom's parents put oil landscapes and still lifes on the longer walls of their house, and my Dad's mother covered every cabinet and mantelpiece with knickknacks. My parents, practical and unsentimental, had no use for decoration except the occasional family heirloom and two paintings. The two paintings were two of the Norman Rockwell's Freedoms. "Where are the other two?" I asked when the origin of our paintings was explained. "We don't really believe in them," Dad replied.
If my philosophy seems fragmented--a hodgepodge of claims and theories without much coherent structure--you can blame the Two Freedoms. To my parents, grouping the Four Freedoms together was an arbitrary distinction to be immediately discarded; they agreed with two and disagreed with two. Similarly, I reject no idea that seems right, regardless of its source, and I accept no idea that seems wrong. I delegate my thinking to no person, no movement and no ideal (not even my parents, though I admit I used to). This means that I have no natural allies in my worldview; even those who look for and process knowledge exactly as I do will probably come to different conclusions through their different life experiences.
I do not want to join your Group of all Right-Thinking People, because I believe "Group" and "Thinking" to be fundamentally opposed. By not joining your group, no matter how clearly you try to explain the Truth to me, I realize I look like the Enemy. The Enemy sees me as the enemy too. It's a price I gladly pay to keep my thoughts my own.
As I would not be a follower, so would I not be a leader. I give my arguments in the hopes that you'll think about them, not in the hopes that you'll say "Hmm, this guy knows what he's talking about. Let's talk ourselves into agreeing with everything he says." Every so often, people have to say "Fuck logic; that feels WRONG," and I respect that. And sometimes I *will* be wrong, in which case I want to know it. I prefer right answers you come up with to wrong answers I come up with.
Truth is real, and we can discover it, and we can make the world better with it. I'm still looking for it, and I hope you are too. Best of luck with your search.
I predict that even if you don't know me and have never read any of my other posts or my profile, you can already guess which Two Freedoms hang on my parents' wall.
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Religion
Freedom from Fear
Freedom from Want
Norman Rockwell, the famous Saturday Evening Post illustrator made paintings of all of them (see above links). Growing up, my Mom's parents put oil landscapes and still lifes on the longer walls of their house, and my Dad's mother covered every cabinet and mantelpiece with knickknacks. My parents, practical and unsentimental, had no use for decoration except the occasional family heirloom and two paintings. The two paintings were two of the Norman Rockwell's Freedoms. "Where are the other two?" I asked when the origin of our paintings was explained. "We don't really believe in them," Dad replied.
If my philosophy seems fragmented--a hodgepodge of claims and theories without much coherent structure--you can blame the Two Freedoms. To my parents, grouping the Four Freedoms together was an arbitrary distinction to be immediately discarded; they agreed with two and disagreed with two. Similarly, I reject no idea that seems right, regardless of its source, and I accept no idea that seems wrong. I delegate my thinking to no person, no movement and no ideal (not even my parents, though I admit I used to). This means that I have no natural allies in my worldview; even those who look for and process knowledge exactly as I do will probably come to different conclusions through their different life experiences.
I do not want to join your Group of all Right-Thinking People, because I believe "Group" and "Thinking" to be fundamentally opposed. By not joining your group, no matter how clearly you try to explain the Truth to me, I realize I look like the Enemy. The Enemy sees me as the enemy too. It's a price I gladly pay to keep my thoughts my own.
As I would not be a follower, so would I not be a leader. I give my arguments in the hopes that you'll think about them, not in the hopes that you'll say "Hmm, this guy knows what he's talking about. Let's talk ourselves into agreeing with everything he says." Every so often, people have to say "Fuck logic; that feels WRONG," and I respect that. And sometimes I *will* be wrong, in which case I want to know it. I prefer right answers you come up with to wrong answers I come up with.
Truth is real, and we can discover it, and we can make the world better with it. I'm still looking for it, and I hope you are too. Best of luck with your search.
I predict that even if you don't know me and have never read any of my other posts or my profile, you can already guess which Two Freedoms hang on my parents' wall.