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Originally Posted by dr wadd
And who the hell are you to determined the concept of "freedom" for the rest of the world? Different cultures have different belief values, but of course, only your set of values is the correct one isn`t it.
I could point out here that Christianity also attempts to curtail a lot of freedoms, perhaps we should get a liberation force in to free us from those attempting to make us a Christian state?
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A very neat attempt to side step the issue ... something I note you are very adept at doing when you have no answer to the point raised.
Within the context of the world we live in, 'absolute freedom' does not exist, because my 'freedom' to do one thing could impair someone else's 'freedom' to do something else. That's why we have laws. The laws which we claim defines our freedom in fact restrict it. To take a trivial example, my neighbour can't play his stereo at full volume at 2am because that violates my freedom to get a good night's sleep.
It's no use pointing out to me the 'curtailment' of freedom within Christianity; I am a Christian as you well know so I am quite familiar with the concept. As a matter of fact, I have found life within the moral framework of my faith to be truly liberating (and do try to remember that I adhere to that faith
by choice).
As all 'freedom' is relative, I propose that the best definition of 'freedom' is that which finds a balance between the right of the individual to do what he/she choses, while safeguarding the rights of others not to be inconvenienced by those choices.
Your apologism for a 'culture' whose 'belief values' regards it as acceptable to make women into second-class citizens is really quite sad. Afghan women make up broadly half of the population of the country, so how can you regard oppression of women as a legitimate 'cultural' value when it is only subscribed to by, at most, half of the culture? (In fact, many Afghan men considered the Taleban rule to be extreme, but were powerless to do anything about it). This set-up fails my proposed definition of freedom because as the Taleban exercised its freedom to deny women education and careers, many women were thereby denied the freedom they desired to be educated, or have a job. Remember that many Afghan women previously had these freedoms, even during the Soviet occupation.
The situation in Afghanistan was brought about by tyrrany, pure and simple, and I submit that the situation there now is substantially better for the people than it was; that the majority of the people accept this; and that you should stop blindly assuming that anything the USA gets involved in must necessarliy have been better if they had left it alone.