5754
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You can't control someone's free mind, only their body and possessions
[Boethius]
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Full Idea:
The only way one man can exercise power over another is over his body and what is inferior to it, his possessions. You cannot impose anything on a free mind.
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From:
Boethius (The Consolations of Philosophy [c.520], II.VI)
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A reaction:
Written, of course, in prison. Boethius had not met hypnotism, or mind-controlling drugs, or invasive brain surgery. He hadn't read '1984'. He hadn't seen 'The Ipcress File'. (In fact, he should have got out more…)
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19939
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Government is oppressive if opinions can be crimes, because people can't give them up
[Spinoza]
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Full Idea:
Government is bound to become extremely oppressive where dissident opinions which are within the domain of each individual, a right which no one can give up, are treated as a crime.
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From:
Baruch de Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670], 18.06 (2))
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A reaction:
One might compare illicit desires, such as those of a paedophile, where it is a crime to act on them, but presumably they cannot be given up, so there is no point in legislating against the mere desires.
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19858
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No one should be molested for their opinions, if they do not disturb the established order
[Mirabeau/committee]
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Full Idea:
No man is to be molested on account of his opinions, even his religious opinions, provided that their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
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From:
Mirabeau and committee (Declaration of the Rights of Man [1789], 10)
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A reaction:
Virtually any opinion will 'disturb' the established order a little bit, so this gives the option of suppressing quite mild beliefs, on the grounds of their small disturbance. It is still a wonderful proposal, though.
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21848
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Some lines (of flight) are becomings which escape the system
[Deleuze]
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Full Idea:
There are lines which do not amount to the path of a point, which break free from structure - lines of flight, becomings, without future or past, without memory, which resist the binary machine. …The rhizome is all this.
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From:
Gilles Deleuze (A Conversation: what is it? What is it for? [1977], II)
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A reaction:
The binary machine enforces simplistic either/or choices. I assume the 'lines' are to replace the Self, with something much more indeterminate, active and changing.
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