But what about the apparent absurdity of the idea of dignity, freedom, and reason, sustained by extreme military discipline, including of the practice of discarding weak children? This absurdity is simply the price of freedomfreedom is not free, as they put it in the film [300]. Freedom is not something given, it is regained through a hard struggle in which one should be ready to risk everything. Spartan ruthless military discipline is not simply the opposite of Athenian liberal democracy, it is its inherent condition, it lays the foundation for it: the free subject of Reason can only emerge through ruthless self-discipline. True freedom is not a freedom of choice made from a safe distance, like choosing between a strawberry cake and a chocolate cake; true freedom overlaps with necessity, one makes a truly free choice when ones choice puts at stake ones very existenceone does it because one simply cannot do otherwise. When ones country is under foreign occupation and one is called by a resistance leader to join the fight against the occupiers, the reason given is not you are free to choose, but: Cant you see that this is the only thing you can do if you want to retain your dignity?

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About Slavoj iek

Slavoj iek.

Themes

  • Freedom — The value of liberty, independence, and self-determination

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