Even Greener Pastures

You know, Marcin, for somebody who's just claimed his English wasn't up to complicated discussions, you don't half ask difficult questions, do you? 

I just felt myself obliged to mobilize my mind and write a few posts yesterday evening (even though my wife wasn't happy about it - she would prefer to watch a movie together). I had no time to check dictionaries or other sources, so... if you think my English is still understandable - I'm satisfied (I'm not preparing to take any exam on it anyway).

Anyway, there is no state where everyone is completely free, is there? Nor would you wish to live in a state where everybody was free to kill off or rob other people at will, for example, would you?

Of course. It's obvious that one's freedom should be limited by other people freedom rights (and by common sense, natural law, religion, whatever you will call it). And the law should be the instrument of keeping the freedom equally balanced.

I think it's pretty dangerous, for example, if there is a serious infringement of individual people's rights/freedom, introduced solely to guarantee the continued existence of a state (read: one particular government). Take for example the laws against leaving the GDR - people got shot simply for wanting to live in a different country. Still, I'm sure schoolchildren in Eastern Germany were taught they were growing up in a free country, that they actually had much more freedom than the slaves of capitalism across the border.

I do totally agree. It wasn't my intention to advocate the communism or show it's benefits - It's forbidden by the law in my country by the way, but I was old enough (even as a teenager) to see what wasn't working properly in this system. Of course we were taught officially that the system we used to live in in 80's was the best in the world. But one has not to be a genius to see it didn't work in practice. I know that the power given to the police and military forces was to keep people where they were and with their mouths shut. I was answering to Pasha's post, which connected freedom to safety. I mean that even badly designed law may be effective against the common crimes. Of course until the politics and ideology gets involved in the matter. When the criminal knows someone, who knows someone... it appears suddenly that his victim is the one who committed the crime.It was a popular song in the '80s which concluded 'my stupor doesn't go away until today, that they called thieves "the political system"'. The police in democratic countries often complains nowadays, that they have no instrument to fight against the criminals, being too limited by citizens' rights. It doesn't mean I would prefer to live in any kind of totalitarianism.
There's another Polish song with refrain like that: 'Freedom... I love and understand. Freedom... I can't give away.'