The state is at the same time the source of and the basic impediment to human freedom

The state is the source of human freedom, because the state is the only way for humans to become individuals and thus to be able to augment their information processing (see §25.00.04). At the same time it is the greatest impediment to human freedom, because it controls all of its citizens’ information processing. This is unavoidable: all human information processing on the information platform that is their state exists because of the state and takes place with its intermediation. The state is a (tacit, implied) participant in any and all human interaction. State sovereignty, after all, means control of any and all information processing within its territory (see §16.00.01 and §16.00.02). In other words, the state constrains freedom because it gives humans the terms of reference necessary for them to be able to imagine. (This also helps to make sense of Rousseau’s famous opening, that ‘man was born free’. Humans are born free, i.e. able to imagine. What they imagine as their freedom, however, is transformed through government and political system into liberty as soon as they are born, unavoidably restricting their imagined freedom—hence Rousseau’s immediate follow-up that ‘he is everywhere in chains’. In other words, the state, as an information platform, is actually found everywhere around humans (i.e. it is natural to them), thus transforming their natural-born freedom into liberty as soon as they come to life.)

Navigate: ← §25.00.05.00 · Corpus · §25.00.06.01 →