Thread:Ragnarok6354/@comment-24187738-20150327154858/@comment-11148831-20150328040927

Okay. After hours of racking my brain for words, this is what I came up with.

...how would you define freedom?

Freedom for me is just an ideal. It's just an idea that someone with a very optimistic mind, or a manipulative mind, came up with. You can never be totally free when you're bounded by rules and laws, and even by morals and ethics. If one believes he can be totally free, he'll have to follow no one, not even himself, and that's impossible.

I think freedom is just something that makes you believe you're free to do what you want, when in reality you're still bounded by a lot of things. Leaders who promote democracy are either optimistic and/or manipulative. Using freedom as a tool to make people follow their ideals.

"Freedom" itself is just beautification of the words, "you're free to say and do what you want, but it's not guaranteed that you won't be judged and punished for them".

...is it worthwhile to trade political and social freedoms for stability and economic success?

This depends on a lot of factors. While I think it has been worthwhile for SG, I don't think it will work on PH in its current state. A lot has happened after Marcos' regime (He was a dictator) and the democratic idea has stuck on the minds of the Filipinos. If we were to elect a leader who acted like Marcos now, enforcing strict laws and focuses on economic growth, we will just be triggering more civil wars and protests.

I do think what your founding father did was the best choice. I mean, the strict laws are only not good for the people who want to violate them. I think that's the same with all kinds of rules. If you follow them, then you don't have to worry about the consequences and punishments.

If enforcing stricter laws and harsher punishments are what would take for the economy to improve, I don't see why we shouldn't do it. Having stricter laws and harsher punishments is better than seeing protests all over the country, people starving to death, or people dying from the ongoing civil wars.