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Mass Freedom

Ability to Do Anything

Nov 29 2018

Why the Freedom for People to Choose Their Leaders is Important

One of the main features of democratic governance is the freedom for people to freely choose their leaders. In today’s article, we will be trying to figure out why this freedom (for people to choose their leaders) is important.

There is one main reason as to why the freedom for people to choose their leaders is important. This is in the fact that the leaders who are directly chosen by the people will tend to have the people’s best interests at heart. At the very least, the leaders who are directly chosen by the people know that they are answerable to the people. This forces them to be responsive to the people’s needs.

That applies not just in presidential, congressional, gubernatorial or senatorial contests, but even in local leadership positions. Take, for instance, a case where the staff at CVS Health have to choose their representatives at the union. If the representatives are chosen through direct election, it would mean that they would be directly answerable to the people who chose them. Thus if one of the CVS Health workers who took part in the election is having problems accessing his account on the myhr cvs portal, and the CVS Health IT people are taking him round in circles, he would be in a position to seek help from the union representative — whom he voted for directly. True, the the union representative may not be naturally inclined to help the worker in question here. But he would nonetheless be compelled to do so by the fact that he is answerable to other workers, who elected him directly to represent their interests.

Thus, in an ideal situation, all positions of leadership would be elective. This means that people would (only) be led by individuals whom they have elected directly, at all levels. This would lead to a situation where we would have a global leadership that is highly responsive to people’s needs.

Written by masblog · Categorized: Freedoms We Desire

Nov 09 2018

Understanding the Freedom of Expression

In all democracies, people are said to have freedom of expression. Even authoritarian regimes claim to grant their citizens (at least on paper) some degree of this particular freedom. But it is a poorly understood freedom. Many people don’t really understand what freedom of expression is, how far it stretches (or how far it can be stretched) and what the limitations to it are. That is the gap will be trying to fill in today’s article, as we shed some light on the freedom of expression.

So, what exactly is the freedom of expression? Well, going by international conventions, the freedom of expression seems to have three key pillars. The first of those is where, under the freedom of expression, people have the freedom to seek information or ideas, to receive information or ideas and to impart information or ideas on other people. The second pillar is where, under the freedom of expression, people have freedom to express themselves artistically or generally to practice artistic creativity. The third pillar is where people have academic freedom and freedom to conduct scientific research. So those are the three pillars that underpin the freedom of expression.

Like all other constitutional freedoms, there are limits to the extent to which the freedom of expression can be enjoyed. Thus, for instance, whereas you have freedom to impart ideas/information on others, you must not, in the process, incite them to violence. Neither may you, in the enjoyment of the freedom of expression, go to the extent of engaging in hate speech. Again, in enjoying the freedom of expression, you have to be very careful, not to infringe on other people’s reputations. Therefore, when you take all these caveats into consideration, it becomes clear that the freedom of expression is not an absolute one.

Problems arise when people expect to enjoy their freedom of expression without paying any attention to the limitations that are in place. So in the process, they end up injuring others’ reputations, engaging in hate speech, inciting people… sometimes leading to major legal problems.

Written by masblog · Categorized: Constitutional Freedoms

Nov 01 2018

Law Enforcement Officers and Constitutional Freedoms

The relationship between law enforcement officers and constitutional freedoms is a complex one. On the one hand, the law enforcement officers play a key role in ensuring that people are able to enjoy their constitutional freedoms. Yet on the other hand, it is very easy for the law enforcement officers to start curtailing people’s enjoyment of the very same constitutional freedoms.

Take, for instance, the freedom of speech. There are folks who, given a chance, would want to stop you from saying certain things. But they dare not do this, because they know that if they ‘mess up with you’ they will be arrested (by the law enforcement officers) and subjected to legal processes. They are therefore forced to let you say whatever you want to say – which means that in the process, you get to enjoy your freedom of speech. The inference here is that if it wasn’t for the law enforcement officers, you wouldn’t have been able to enjoy that particular freedom. So this is an instance where the law enforcement officers play a key role in ensuring that people get to enjoy their constitutional freedoms.

But on the other hand, we can take the example of the freedom (for workers) to strike. We often see law enforcement officers being deployed to curtail the enjoyment of this particular freedom. Thus, for instance, we may be looking at a situation where CVS Health staff (whose HR portal is myhrcvs) decide to demonstrate, to demand for better working conditions. Then the employers, or the local government authorities, may decide to deploy law enforcement officers, to suppress the strike/demonstration. This would be a case where law enforcement officers would be curtailing the enjoyment of a constitutional freedom.

In the final analysis, it takes citizens’ vigilance to ensure that law enforcement officers play their rightful role in facilitating the enjoyment of constitutional freedoms. If the citizens are not vigilant, the law enforcement agencies can easily go rogue. The end result would be a situation where, rather than facilitating the enjoyment of constitutional freedoms, the law enforcement agencies actually curtail their enjoyment.

Written by masblog · Categorized: Constitutional Freedoms

Oct 18 2018

Debating the Freedom for People to Use Recreational Drugs

There is a raging debate, about the freedom for people to use recreational drugs. This debate is taking place against a background where more and more states are allowing people to use marijuana for recreational purposes. And so we have some commentators who argue that the freedom should be taken further, with people being allowed to use all other recreational drugs. The question is posed: if it is fine to allow people to use alcohol and recreational marijuana, why not allow them to use other recreational drugs?

Those who are against the freedom for people to use recreational drugs point out that such drugs have a tendency to mess people up. And indeed, there are people all over the world whose lives have been wholly messed up by abuse of recreational drugs. There are people whose health has been totally messed up by the abuse of recreational drugs. There are others whose finances are in a total mess, thanks to the abuse of recreational drugs. That is where you find an individual who can’t even qualify for the capital one getmyoffer deal, due to poor credit scores. When you dig deeper, in an effort to understand why they can’t even qualify for a credit card at getmyoffer.capitalone.com, you realize that the main reason is something to do with poor personal finance management. And on further enquiry, you come to realize that their inability to manage their finances is related to their abuse of recreational drugs…

Thus, in a nutshell, it is argued that recreational drugs have the potential to ruin a person completely – physically and mentally. And on that ground alone, the freedom for people to use recreational drugs legally shouldn’t be granted.

Those who are in favor of the recreational drugs, on the other hand, have sound arguments too. They argue, for instance, that having legalized the recreational drugs, it will be easier to regulate them. Furthermore, once the recreational drugs are legalized, it will become easier for the people whose lives get messed up by such drugs to seek help.

Both sides in this debate seem to have valid arguments. It remains to be seen which side will win, when all is said and done.

Written by masblog · Categorized: Freedoms We Desire

Oct 04 2018

The Internet and the Freedom of Speech

The Internet has made it easier for people to enjoy their freedom of speech. No question about that. Thanks to the Internet, we now have more people enjoying their freedom of speech than was the case in the pre-Internet era. Here, it is important to pause and appreciate the nature of the freedom of speech. The freedom of speech is not just about being able to open your mouth and emit words. The freedom of speech is more about being able to address an audience, and being able to impart ideas to such an audience without fear. It is really all about trying to influence an audience. If you are just speaking to yourself, you can’t be said to be really enjoying your freedom of speech.

The specific ways in which the internet has made it easier for people to enjoy their freedom of speech include:

  1. By availing audiences: The internet has made it possible for people to connect to audiences that they wouldn’t have been able to connect with before. Today, with just a Twitter account, it is possible to have thousands of ‘followers’ in all the six continents, without really having to do much.
  2. By cutting costs: The Internet has made it possible for people to enjoy their freedom of speech without having to spend too much money. Today, you don’t have to organize a political rally (or some other sort of rally), to get an audience you can address. Things were different in the pre-internet era. For instance, in the pre-Internet era, the only way to connect with an audience remotely would have been by phone (say, by setting up a conference call). But the logistics of doing so were nightmarish, as were the costs. If you were to set up a conference call (and you were, say, a Metro PCS phone customer) you’d have to be ready to part with a tidy sum of money at the metro pay bill page. And then, even after having incurred the huge expense in the form of the metro pcs payment, you’d have ensure that all participants in the call were all available, besides their phones, at the point when you’d be making the conference call. Some would say that that is too much work and expense.
  3. By introducing anonymity: The internet has made it possible for people to enjoy their freedom of speech without fear. This has meant that people are able to say things that they wouldn’t have dared to say, in the pre-internet era.

Written by masblog · Categorized: Freedoms We Desire

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