Freedom is not our natural state. Perhaps it is how we arrive in this world, but as part of a social species, we quickly amass various obligations. These could be possessions, relationships, or simply a price we pay to attain cooperation, which is how we as a species have managed to thrive.

I believe obligation is our natural state, and find freedom (as a virtue) to be a naive and misunderstood pursuit.

Recent posts about censorship (of trolls, haters, attackers of the marginalized) are the result of proposing freedom as a maxim. When humans are not held accountable by their obligations, things generally get ugly - regardless of their station. We see this in emperors, as well as mobs of commoners.

What is the solution? Some kind of enforcement of a social contract, and I don't think any of us knows what that looks like in an anonymous digital world, but it is something that has always been an issue with technological expansion. Religion was a very early solution, which enabled an enforceable social contract and division of labor. But religion also created marginalized groups, so it wasn't a perfect solution.

Perhaps the new solution is Bitcoin, but it is far to early to tell how that will pan out, and if it also will create marginalization.

The only freedom that I believe is necessary is the freedom to own property - something that has been an issue until Bitcoin, and may yet be an issue, who's to say - but with ownership comes obligation, so even thay "freedom" is never free.