Is every choice a person can make legitimate? I honestly don't know.
What if you choose to be a slave?
Choosing slavery seems to be the choice to kill off your liberty, just like suicide is the choice to kill your own body. Yet I am less uncomfortable with the choice to commit suicide (even though I don't like that choice) than I am with the choice to be a slave. I doubt you'd be able to regret killing yourself after it's done, but you'd certainly be able (and even likely) to regret-- for a long time-- choosing to be a slave.
Once you've chosen to be a slave, how do you change your choice if you come to regret it? If you can change your mind are you really enslaved?
I think about this when I see how many people choose to celebrate being a "citizen", which I consider to be the choice to be a slave to a collective; a government or a nation. Will that collective ever really let you change your mind once you've accepted the terms of your enslavement?
I understand the promised benefits of this arrangement. I can see why some have the desire to belong. I also realize that if certain conditions are met, the government in question will consider you a "citizen" regardless of your wishes. If you believe this government's claim is bogus to begin with, I don't really see much point in paying tons of money and fighting for years to make this government withdraw its claim to you. I'm more thinking about those who make this a big part of their personal identity and are proud of it.
If you choose to be a slave to a collective in such a way, is that a self-destructive choice? It sure looks like it to me.
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Reminder: I could really use some help.
