
The myth of freedom - kawera
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/14/yuval-noah-harari-the-new-threat-to-liberal-democracy
======
devoply
See century of self. Governments have been "hacking" people since probably the
beginning of government. Free will yet remains an ever present concept that is
the basis of fundamental things such as the law.

~~~
pizzazzaro
Agreed. The kind of technocratic musings as the original post have been around
since the industrial revolution.

And wouldn't you know it, the people who embrace this kind of rhetoric usually
happen to be either Fascists, Corporate leaders in search of power
masquerading as "charity", or even Racist Nationalists.

The OP doesnt talk about what it takes to avoid these sorts of "human hacking"
\- robust education including rhetoric and debate, but also in sniffing
"sponsored content", advertising, and bulls%!t. It takes independent news
sources not beholden exclusively to profit, but who can trust that quality,
independent journalism will earn a living, and find a public that trusts such
news.

It takes remembering our history - through the labor movement and World Wars,
we dont teach the lessons we learned, and so we suffer.

Neglecting that solutions exist isn't even nihilism. Its depressive navel
gazing. Yes, the solutions are hard. Having a civilization at all gets hard
from time to time.

------
throwaway8879
How can there be any "free will" if we are brought into existence without
consent? The only true freedom is to cease to exist. Perhaps quasi-true
freedom will be achieved somewhat if there is ever free energy and FTL travel
that allows an individual to find a habitable planet. There is no true freedom
in a world with resource scarcity. There is no place to run away to, or no
place to be exiled, only behind caged bars.

