13 The good old days and the fear of freedom Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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The good old days and the fear of freedom Again and again, one hears that old and older people rave about the good old days. As if they wanted to go back because everything was supposed to be better, even perfect. Abortion was prohibited; Women didn’t have the right to speak or vote; People died because medicine had not been that developed yet; Racism was also considered chic in “better” circles (this made the Holocaust possible); there was no social network; a fee had to be paid for kindergarten and school; not to speak of university; The list seems to be endless. History books speak about wonderful and powerful rulers who astonished by their splendid and magnificent way of life. In fairy tales, there are princes or princesses who are beautiful and whose clothes were so rich in gold and diamonds that they could not have been worn because of their weight. There were no passports yet, but of course that didn't mean that one could travel whenever and wherever one wanted. At the "golden" time in Rome under Augustus, the emperor controlled who was allowed to trade and where. The "great" Mathias in Hungary, a real Renaissance prince, convinced these traditional historians by his court and black army, which was probably more like a horde of robbers and by fear convinced even the most stubborn to pay the tribute, or tax as it is called today. But what was the life of ordinary people like in historical times? Because one probably could not have hoped to be born king if one was born at that time. The average life expectancy in ancient Egypt was around 25 or 30 years, in the Middle Ages it was a bit better with regular salt supply, because the smarter among the ruling class had figured out that higher taxes could be paid by the ordinary population if their health was better looked after. Adam Smith was the first to put this principle on paper. How do we live today In developed countries, the average life expectancy is around 70 years, and even small people lead a fairly free life. Again, it seems that the leading part of society has recognized that a more global, freer world makes more profit. However, this liberalism removes the small man from state control. But only a few clever people use this unique opportunity to lead a truly independent life. Nevertheless, one can't be too happy now. The conflict of interests between the state and the individual has not been yet settled. Such Bla-Bla by David Hume, the Scottish philosopher, that the state is a contract between members of a community, or comments from statesmen all over the world that freedom must be protected by even more state, laws or even cameras hung everywhere (who has nothing to hide, has nothing to fear.), leads inevitably to control and thus to a restriction of the freedom of each individual. An ever better bank structure and computer technology make it possible, for example, to track down exactly who bought what, when and where. When mentioning the argument that credit cards can save a lot of money, it is constantly forgotten to recall the fact that there has never been a power in history that has not misused its means of control. When will people finally learn not to be blinded by beautiful bla-bla, and that freedom is priceless. If one has nothing to fear, one doesn't fear freedom! Back to list!

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