| Please note I am saying this as a fellow "free spirit" type. It isn't intended to disrespect you per se. I appreciate your participation here. It's just an interesting thought experiment you've injected into the discussion and it's a thought experiment near and dear to my heart and these are some of my thinkings about it. ---- Jesus said "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's." IIRC, this was in reply to someone wanting to use his teachings as justification to not pay their taxes. I'm kind of a hippy tree hugger type. I'm also a former military wife, so I'm a pro military, pro government hippy tree hugger. The world needs hippy tree huggers. But they are more beneficent when they take the position "I'm not part of the government, so I'm free to live this way in part because we have functioning government." rather than acting like government needs to go. It is not lost upon me that hippy types only ever exist in secure spaces. You don't find them wandering around in active war zones trying to give people a hug who are pointing a gun in their direction. There is some story about "Don't remove this wall in the middle of the street unless you understand its exact purpose and are sure it is no longer needed. Do not remove it based on not seeing its use. If you don't see its use, assume that is a blind spot in you, not proof that the wall is doing nothing." Not to say there isn't room to improve on what we currently have, but I think the "anarchist"/free spirit types are their most helpful when they recognize that freedom is bought with the blood of patriots and disrespecting that fact is inherently problematic. |