Of the importance of Freedom
Some people rever God. I rever Freedom.
It is important to explain this concept of Freedom. To my right, there hangs a poster made by me. It is entitled A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, July 4, 1776.
In 1776 the USA were a brave new nation grounded firmly on the values of the Philosophers of Enlightment. Among their paramount theses, Liberty was the most cherished. Unluckily the USA took their path through history and now at least half of its population is made of arrogant bigots that impose their will to others; nothing is more anti-American than present day American administration. In fact, if Jefferson could see Bush, he could have one of the following two reactions:
1. Sit in a corner, take his head in his hands and weep in silence;
2. Jump at George Bush's throat and strangle him.
I would hope for the latter but the first is more likely.
It is not my intention here to dig further into the American case. It would take me way too far. It suffices to say that I am an admirer of the original intent that served as a ground for the USA.
I am extremely resonant with the concept of Freedom. There is no way to describe how Freedom feels. But it feels good.
Now, consider the following statement:
I am a strong supporter of the movement to legalize cannabis.
Generally, it is believed that supporters of this movement are marijuana smokers, therefore they are drugged bastards and their ideas don't deserve being taken into consideration.
Surprise: I am not a marijuana smoker. In fact, I am part of that exiguous minority of people that never smoked a joint. Or tasted it. Or even approached a joint. In fact, I don't even know how marijuana looks like. The fact that I never smoked marijuana has absolutely nothing to do with its being illegal. It has to do with something that was the second part of my disappeared post number sixteen, that I will not summarize here (I will do it someday, but not now). It is also certain, that legal or not, I will never smoke a joint. If I went to Amsterdam, I wouldn't smoke a joint either.
I don't think that marijuana is unhealthy. I in fact am convinced that the press is intentionally presenting misleading claims to the population to drive smokers toward the market of nicotine, which is immensely more dangerous and deadly than any amount of marijuana we can think of. Cigarettes are poisonous, venemous, cancerous, and devastatingly addictive. Tobacco is one of the greatest evils the society has ever conceived, and the most fiendish spin-off of Colombo's discovery of America in 1492. Tobacco market is controlled by a number of societies, most of them based in the USA, and those in charge of them make an enormous, huge, humongous amount of money by selling cigarettes to people. There're few things I hate more than cigarette smokers, and one of them is cigarette producers.
These people do not feel any moral commitment to protect public health, and in complete awareness of the dangers intentionally keep selling their poison to the millions in order to raise their society's behemothic profits. It is vastly in their interest to demote other forms of smoke and promote only theirs.
Nicotine is a drug. Cannabis is a drug. Nicotine is addictive, cannabis is not. (No dear, it's not. You are not going to sell me that b/s about cannabis being addictive. Go telling that to some Republican bigot. Here you waste your breath.)
Nicotine is legal. Cannabis is illegal.
I am a strong supporter of the legalization of cannabis, and a strong supporter of the prohibition to sell tobacco. There has to be a limit to how much damage a company can do to the public, and since the nations pays for the health care of its population, tobacco should not be sold. Cannabis is healthier so go for it.
If cannabis were legal, I wouldn't smoke it. I never smoked cigarettes either. I never tried a cigarette. I will never try a cigarette. So I would never try a joint either. I couldn't care less, nothing much would change in my life. But a lot of people would be happier and live a healthier life (and would probably less prone to go to war, if it is true that marijuana induces states of communion with the world and a lust for peace).
But it would be only partially true to state that I care about other people's happiness so much as to be a militant for the legalization of something I won't use anyway, just for them to be happy. This is not really the case, to be honest.
In earnest, the legalization of cannabis would mean that I am free to smoke it, and that I am free to choose not to smoke it. Here. I absolutely need this formal freedom. I don't want to do things. I want to know that I am free to do them. That I could do them if I wanted. And then I'll be very happy to not do them. To me, formal freedom is paramount. I absolutely don't care what others do with their freedom. I base my social ethics on the already stated principles of liberalism. As long as what they do doesn't interfere with anyone else, they can do whatever they want. And if it intereferes with a consenting someone, I don't care either. They have their life, life is to be lived only once, so do as they see fit. They want to have sex with a dozen girls and guys at the same time? They want to smoke joints? They want to worship God, Zeus, or the Pink Invisible Unicorn of Lalaland? Their business, not mine. I don't care if they think that what they are eating is not bread but flesh and what they are drinking is not wine but blood (it's a bit gory of a belief, but if they like it...). I don't care if women want to wear a cloth on their face or not, or if men want to cut off a piece of their own penis if that pleases them. It's their own life. As long as they do not force it on someone else, I couldn't give a damn whatever they do. Someone is tired of this stupid life thing and wants to die? Go for it. Someone else is suffering like hell but because he believes in some supernatural entity he wants to keep living? Go for it. When it happens to me, I will ask to let my body cease to live. If I were in a state of irremediable disease and suffering, or not fully capable, or in coma with no hope of retrieving consciousness, I'd want to die. Really. In fact, I would demand to die in such a situation, and no damn god of no damn church is allowed to tell me I can't.
I am a fierce supporter of euthanasia. In this case, I would also benefit from it, but I cannot stand the sufferance of people too, and I can stand even less the gory cruelty of those relatives that inflict the pain of living to suffering beings, to protect their own feelings. I personally heard an old catholic bitch whose daughter is kept alive by a machine and won't ever recover, that "it helps her so much to live side by side with pain" and that she "thanks god for giving her an opportunity to witness pain". They are always thinking to themselves. Does the catholic bitch think that her daughter would also thank god for inflicting pain on her so that her mother could live side by side with pain?
The god of the catholics is a bloodthirsty sadist with no sense of humanity. I am glad I am not a catholic. Sometimes I wonder, if God existed for real, then Catholics are unknowingly worshipping Satan, and the Pope is the vicarious of Behelzebub on Earth. The Bible was certainly inspired by Lucipher, while God was sent to hell for protesting his authority. Jesus Christ tried to speak of peace but Satan had him killed and, as a final note of pleasurable despise, the Devil obtained that Christians worshipped only one picture of Christ: That of him on the cross. Satan must feel terribly amused to see the man that challenged him displayed dead on the cross in every church of the world. This is the only possible explanation for the intrinsic evil of the Church. They control life, they control sex, they brainwash people: who else would do this if not an intrinsically evil and perverted demon of evil? So, if God existed, then he lost his fight to Satan and the Church is the means of the Devil to rule the world. Hail, Satan!
I of course do not believe that God exists. If I believed in God, I wouldn't anyway believe in Satan. Satan is ludicrous. The concept of god might have some philosophical value, but Satan... PLEASE!
Anyway, the church, and the catholic roman church in particular, is a fierce enemy of freedom. They try to prevent people from doing whatever they want. They enjoy taking control of others and force them to do what they wish. This usually implies giving a lot of money to the local priest. There is nothing I hate more than people that control other people. I despise those that feel in the right to chastise what others do to themselves. Go figure what I feel about these bloodthirsty Satan worshippers like Pope John Paul II (in particular, the most evil, contorted, vicious, perverted, eretic Satanist ever born on Earth - I despise John Paul II immensely more than Adolf Hitler, Josif Stalin, and perhaps Berlusconi - although of course Hitler and Stalin aren't nearly as bad as Berlusconi).
Enough about the Church. The point in all this is that I cherish Freedom. I love Freedom. I need Freedom. I love to be able to say anything I want. I am rejoincing for having the right to call John Paul a Satanist (because that's what he is) and spit poison against Hitler and Stalin, which I both despise. I gleefully state that Kennedy is better than Bush and liberals are better than Republicans, and that George Bush Jr. is the worst president of the USA in more than 200 years. I insist that Dan Quayle would be a better president than George Bush Jr. There.
I also love to be free to do things I won't do. Formal freedom is critical. I am not going to smoke a joint but I want to know it's free. I am not going to have sex with a prostitute, but I want prostitution legal. Like it is in Holland. In fact, I think all I want is to be Dutch. The people in the Netherlands don't know how lucky they are. Now, if only they didn't speak that strange language of theirs...
Disclaimer for Satan Worshippers:
Some people might feel offended for being called "Satan Worshippers". I would like to point out clearly that the real Satan Worshippers are the priests. The people do not know they are adoring the Devil. Anyway, since God and therefore the Devil do not exist at all, I do not really believe that Catholics are worshipping Satan. Whatever they worship, do as they like, but if some of their bigot relatives, including in particular a fundamentalist sect known as "Communion and Liberation" believe I will ever abide to any of their grotesque moral biddings, they are really, really, really delusional.
