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Power VS Liberty

Should America Have Power or Liberty?

  • Liberty - Explain

    Votes: 7 70.0%
  • Power - Explain

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Other - Explain

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

jr602az

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Joined
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Messages
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Location
Phoenix,Az USA
Gender
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Political Leaning
Libertarian
Hello America:2wave:

Should America Have Power or Liberty & Why?
 
I think you are going to need to explain your reasoning here. I am not sure why distinctions between these are being made.
 
don't you know what liberty and power means.:doh
In my mind:

"Liberty" means "freedom".

"Power" means any number of things, among them:
  • Electrical power.
  • Political power (in many cases closely intertwined with military power).
  • Military power (in many cases closely intertwined with political power).
  • Personal power (as in, monetary, physical, mental, etc.).
  • Collective power (as in, a group of people and their combined power in all the above ways and probably others).
  • Other types of power I have not mentioned/thought of.
Edit: As the OP, it is your responsibility to define what you were attempting to ask/state, as we are not telepathic (or at least I'm not).
 
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There is some reason the two are mutually exclusive??
 
Whoever has power has liberty(or at least the capability to take it for themselves), and the ability to grant liberty to those who do not have the power to take/maintain it on their own. The rights of the weak are determined by the grace of the powerful.
 
Hello America:2wave:

Should America Have Power or Liberty & Why?

The United States has to have power to protect it's liberty.

Welcome to what those of us who live here call "the real world".
 
Liberty is a fragile illusion that derives from power. In fact, everything that a people needs to survive-- security, prosperity, order-- derives from power. Power is the heart of every interaction between individuals, organizations, and nations.
 
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I'll take liberty over power any day. But if you're talking of things such as military power, that is needed to maintain and proliferate liberty as well. You can have power without liberty, but it will be hard to maintain liberty without power. And that power is held not just by the government which would have armies to defend against foreign hostilities. But it must also include the people with the power to dispose of the government should it try to encroach too much upon liberty.
 
Until the guy defines his terms, we have no idea what he means and we are all just groping in the dark.
 
Power deals with coercion. It is forcefully making something do it normally wouldn't do.

Liberty protects a person from coercion. However, liberty only exists as peaceful (or without force) only when the laws of the land are followed. When laws are broken, and the state loses legitimacy, then liberty requires power and is therefore completely dependent on power.
 
Heard a quote once, not sure where, that addresses the last post. "Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash."
 
Heard a quote once, not sure where, that addresses the last post. "Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash."

Excuse me while I head to the bathroom to exercise my freedom.

On a more serious note. I am not sure why the two would be mutually exclusive. In fact, many forms of freedom/liberty require power to even exercise.
 
'Liberty' (although the term is more aesthetic than technical) is an interpretation of a person's power (defining power as the ability to achieve desirable outcomes regardless of obstacles).

I wonder if the question is, "Should the United States give up its freedoms for a more powerful nation?" Defining people in terms of collectives rather than as individuals.

The answer is that although they can weaken us, overall our freedoms make our country stronger. So, 'versus' is a false distinction.
 
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