When my soul is sick unlimited spiritual liberty is given me by the State. Now then, it doesn't seem logical that the state shall depart from this great policy, the health of the soul, and change about and take the other position in the matter of smaller consequences--the health of the body... Whose property is my body? Probably mine. I so regard it. If I experiment with it, who must be answerable? I, not the State. If I choose injudiciously, does the State die? Oh, no. - Mark Twain, Osteopathy speech, 1902 "Some people's idea of free speech is that they are free to say anything they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage." Winston Churchill The need of expansion is as genuine an instinct in man as the need in a plant for the light, or the need in man himself for going upright. The love of liberty is simply the instinct in man for expansion. ~ Matthew Arnold ~ The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head." - Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) clari.news.issues.civil-rights no longer exists, delete your subscription? -the Andrew Message System "This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: The freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: Any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual." John Steinbeck "Don't see why you have to take sides," said Wensleydale. "Of course I have to take sides," said Pepper. "Everyone has to take sides in something." Adam appeared to reach a decision. "Yes. But I reckon you can make your own side." Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens "Hairstyles and attitudes, how do they relate? How well do we use our freedom to choose the illusions we create?" ["Hairstyles and attitudes", Timbuk3] It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there is service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be master. ---Ayn Rand "Old institutions will clip the wings of new desires. Up to a point, caution is justified and social constraints are necessary. The new technologies will be dangerous as well as liberating. But in the long run, social constraints must bend to new realities. Humanity cannot live forever with clipped wings. The vision of self-improvement, which William Blake and Samuel Gompers in their different ways proclaimed, will not vanish from the earth." - Freeman Dyson, Imagined Worlds, 1996, p. 208. Truth and Transparency becomes | | Transformation and Freedom Hara Ra "Destiny. A tyrant's authority for crime, and a fool's excuse for failure." -Ambrose Bierce Cats are animals that know what their rights are. Eli Khamarov Thought I could organize freedom // how Scandinavian of me! Björk Guilt was the grease in which the wheels of authority turned. Terry Pratchett "We are programmed throughout our lives to limit our thinking and perceptions, because that is the best way to control us and keep us in line. We are encouraged to let 'them', the governments and institutions, do our thinking for us and tell us what we should or should not believe. But it is time to take responsibility for ourselves and stop passing it on to others. The choice is yours and yours alone." DAVID ICKE Freedom of opinion is important for many reasons, especially because it is a necessary condition of all progress, intellectual, moral, political, and social. Where it does not exist, the status quo becomes stereotyped, and all originality, even the most necessary, is discouraged. - Bertrand Russell Tolerance is an obligation /only/ of listeners, not speakers. The obligations of a speaker are clarity and honesty above all else. Lee Daniel Crocker He mourned mankind, and the blindness of men, who thought that the Kosmos had rules and limits that would shelter them from their own freedom. There were no shelters. There were no final purposes. Futility, and freedom, were Absolute. Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences. P.J. O'Rourke Information is free. The only question is: are you? Not to worry, we'll just outlaw all unlicensed cryptography. After all, it works in France. You don't see weekly terrorist attacks over there any more,now do you ? - "Futplex" - Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." --- George Bernard Shaw I am determined to have free will! Hara Ra The higher one climbs on the spiritual ladder, The more they will grant others their own freedom, And give less interference to another's state of consciousness. - Paul Twitchell While the builders of the cages sleep with bullets, bars and stones, they do not see your road to freedom that you build with flesh and bone.