Flutterby™! : Ah, the '60s

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Ah, the '60s

2011-06-13 11:43:23.628618+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

[ related topics: Privacy Civil Liberties Government ]

comments in descending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2011-06-14 08:06:30.715476+00 by: andylyke

I think that "Obedience to the Law is Freedom" is a very loose translation of "Arbeit macht Frei", that similarly appeared over a camp portal.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-06-13 21:56:29.726897+00 by: Dan Lyke

And whence we also get the philosophical concept of "negative and positive rights", wherein "positive" rights are the ones that can only be achieved by the use of force.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-06-13 19:58:12.217235+00 by: Larry Burton [edit history]

That idea goes back even farther:

When each citizen submits himself to the authority of law he does not thereby decrease his independence or freedom, but rather increases it. By recognizing that he is a part of a larger body which is banded together for a common purpose, he becomes more than an individual, he rises to a new dignity of citizenship. Instead of finding himself restricted and confined by rendering obedience to public law, he finds himself protected and defended and in the exercise of increased and increasing rights. CALVIN COOLIDGE, speech, May 30, 1924

And you thought George Orwell came up with doublespeak. ;)