Dear Is Mise,

If you failed to notice, Muslim terrorists and other criminals already do whatever they like.

While they do whatever they like, you also do whatever you need to protect yourself and your family from harm. This is called 'self-defence' and has nothing to do with laws: as they never agreed to become part of your society, you are under no obligation to treat them in a civil way.

(as a side note, however, even where social laws do not apply, the laws of God cannot be bypassed and you will ultimately be accountable for your actions, especially if you overdo it and act against those who threaten you more severely than what is truly required for self-defence)

The focus should be on you, not on them: rather than being negative and blaming them saying "they are wrong", "they are guilty", "they ought to be punished", "I hate them", etc., you should be positive and say (and act accordingly): "Me, my family and those that I love are going to be safe and I will do whatever it takes to make them as safe as possible".

.

Dear Yuyutsu,

.

The Human Freedom Index 2016, a global measurement of personal, civil and economic freedom, established jointly by the Cato Institute of the US, the Fraser Institute of Canada and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom of Germany, places Australia as the 6th freest country in the world, on a par with Canada and the UK.

The top ten freest countries are as follows :

1. Hong Kong
2. Switzerland
3. New Zealand
4. Ireland
5. Denmark
6. Canada, UK, Australia
9. Finland
10. Netherlands

Here is the link :

http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/human-freedom-index-files/human-freedom-index-2016.pdf

I guess 6th place is not too bad considering that there are about 200 countries in the world. We could certainly do much worse than that.

Nothing’s perfect. There’s no paradise on earth, I’m afraid. There are many freedoms I used to enjoy when I was a kid wandering about in the Queensland bush with my old 303 rifle I bought in the local army surplus store. No licence needed in those days. I even took it on the plane with me to Sydney. The pilot gave me permission provided I took the bolt out.

No need for a licence for the stray dog I grew up with either. As my mother wouldn’t let me keep it when it strayed into the garden as a little puppy, I shared it with one of my mates whose grandmother agreed to be the official owner (his mother wouldn’t let him keep it either). Nippy wandered around freely with us, spending a few days here and a few days there as he pleased, occasionally disappearing completely for several weeks. But he always showed up again somewhere or other, usually with severe cuts and scratches as though he had been in a fight – probably during the mating season.

I understand your feelings, Yuyutsu, but, all in all, I’m happy to be able to use public facilities occasionally (buses, trains, hospitals, schools, etc.). I regret the old bush tracks but I guess bitumen roads and modern bridges are better in the flood season. Worth paying for.

.

Thank you, Banjo.

The report is interesting indeed, but ridiculous too.

Switzerland second? They have conscription - a conscript is a slave, conscripts have no freedom of movement, they may not even move an arm or a leg without permission. Further, Swiss men are forced to keep a gun at home whether they agree or not. The alpine snow may be white but that place is very dark and Australia should score far above.

Look at the arbitrary bias: for example, a country scores points if women have the same rights for divorce as men. In the Philippines, divorce is equally illegal, so they get a score of 5/10.

One may well be comfortable in their society and happy to pay the price for roads, bridges and hospitals - this is fine and perfectly acceptable, but it doesn't address the moral issue: How dare I be part of and cooperate with such a body which forces itself on others who are not similarly comfortable and happy as myself to pay the price? It could be that 99.9999% are happy, but even if there is just one(1) person who is forced to live under the laws of a society against their will, then by accepting that society I am guilty of accepting evil and by being a member I am guilty of benefiting from coercion.

The one primary freedom that trumps all other freedoms is the freedom to belong or to not belong to a society (while remaining on the territory that it claims) and on that account, all countries get a score of 0 or thereabouts.

Suppose there existed a society where murder, rape and wife-beating were legal while internet-access, expression, demonstrations, political parties, religion, homosexuality, foreign-currency, divorce, etc. etc. were all banned - yet belonging to this hypothetical society was optional for all, then while I would personally hate to live in such a society, I would still find it perfectly moral, way more moral than say, Australia, where the option to opt-out from society is absent.

BP thanks for your link it is most interesting, lovely set of graphs. Unfortunate they are arbitrary, The findings in general are, if a country overall is wealthy, it rates higher than a poor country, both in human and economic terms. From a economic perspective Australia rates 7.93/10, and personal freedom 9.29/10 yet so many Australians are tied to the economic treadmill, granted they have lots of material goods, but they often pay a high price in personal freedom to satisfy that materialism, placed in servitude for the whole of their life just to service that wonderful life time debt they have incurred trying to get there. If we could quantify well-being and produce an index, we may find unexpected results. On the imaginary 'Happiness Index' Australians rate a poor 4.76/10, yet Fijians rate 9.83/10. Seems all this wonderfulness is simply based on Western values, then for Western countries are rated high, and the rest are stuffed.

Military intervention in Australia rates perfectly at 10/10, so benign. Yet Australia is one of the most militaristic countries in the world, as evident by our involvement in wars the world over. The average world citizen is much more likely to be killed by an Australian than say an Ethiopian, What then is the potential of military intervention in Australia by Australians, very high given the past history and right circumstances.

Yuyutsu, from my point of view the above is one of your best posts.

Yuyutsu is possibly from US? The revolution like the other ones make people feel they own the authority and can reject it for back-sliding. Many Americans feel they own guns as defense against Sam.
Oz only had Eureka stockade for a couple of hours. A permanent gun communal enclave would look like Scotland at its worst .

.

Dear Yuyutsu,

.

You wrote :

« ... Australia, where the option to opt-out from society is absent »

.

I must confess that I didn't know that, Yuyutsu.

Would you be so kind as to let me have the references to the law that forbids "opting-out from society", together with the relevant sanctions ?

.