Monday 27 August 2018

QotD: "To clarify, I am all for people individually doing pointless things that make them happy. Just don’t impose your pointless things on others. In short, I am for pluralism of pointlessness."


"To clarify, I am all for people individually doing pointless things that make them happy. Just don’t impose your pointless things on others. In short, I am for pluralism of pointlessness."
~ Christopher Stroop.

2 comments:

MarkT said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MarkT said...

Not the best quote.

Firstly, doing things you don't agree with doesn't make them "pointless". They may be pointless to you, but possibly not pointless to someone else in a different context. In fact if it makes them happy, there's a good chance it's not pointless - for them. Liberty is not justified by needing freedom to do pointless things, but freedom to do the important things needed to survive and flourish on an individual level.

Secondly, even if something could be objectively shown to be pointless, or alternatively shown to be important - it still wouldn't justify force being used. The key point that collectivists neglect is that 'important' can only be determined by each individual in their context, and giving them the freedom to do that also requires allowing them to make mistakes. The moment force is used to make someone do or not do something , greater damage is done in terms of limiting their ability to think and act for themselves.