Hey Arlo, A metaphor perhaps. It depends on how one sees freedom. Let me ask you this: Do we live in a world of bondage that we are trying to instill freedom, or do we live in a world of freedom in which we succumb to bondage? Your essay below suggest the former, whereas, the latter seems much more reasonable.
Bondage takes a lot of work. We spend (at least) 14 years or so being indoctrinated into the bondage of words and the social level. This takes a lot of work and punishment. As we approach adulthood, the bondage is complete for many. Often we wish we were children again, and why is that? Take Picasso (who has been mentioned recently). He became an adult very early on, and then spent the rest of his life seeking freedom. The structures do not enable or constrain anything. They can be dismissed with the blink of an eye. The road does not "allow" us to move, we "allow the "road" to constrain us, if we are not mindful of it. The road is not an agency with any power, simply a road that we build. If we allow that which we build to dominate us, then freedom is lost. This is most true of any government. We do not have to wear glasses to "see". Depending on glasses is a choice away from freedom. I do not see the structure and agency as co-evolving. I see them as two counter currents who's friction brings about our reality. Thanks for your post. Mark On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 9:02 AM, Arlo Bensinger <[email protected]> wrote: > [Mark] > Freedom is a rig full of gas, a wide open road, a stack of audio CDs, and > some sweet rock and roll. Oh, yeah, and truck stops full of coffee. Just > watch out for the ones full of Vampires... > > [Arlo] > A nice metaphor for "freedom", since the agency one is able to act upon > above is constrained by many structures; the road, the availability of gas, > the adherence to "rules of the road", acts of weather (my "freedom" was > constrained one night in South Dakota by heavy rains that led to the > temporary closing of the Interstate), one's health, etc. > > The key is seeing that these structures both enable the agency of the driver > as well as constrain it. Our range of agency is not merely constrained by > structure, the structure provides the opportunity for agency as well. > > The road allows us to move, at the same time it limits our directions. > Without the road, the best we could manage is perhaps a 5-10 mph romp on a > moon rover across unpaved terrain. The road lets us get anywhere on the > continent fairly quickly, but the price we pay for this "freedom" is that we > follow the road. > > Someone once suggested to me its like corrective lenses. You "have" to wear > them to see, but this "loss of freedom" is combined with the "freedom" that > seeing enables. So we are constrained by the road, but at the same time the > road enables us to travel. > > Of course, all this (structure and agency) are not "fixed", but evolving > mutually, structures change and adapt as agency is applied, and in turn > agency changes and adapts as structures change. > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
