Then properly define Liberty for me, and we can discuss it. I will tell you whether or not I agree.
I just did. You must have missed it.
Not arguing, just a question.
Isn't that exactly the definition of liberty? Aren't you confusing our social contract to not impede liberty with actual liberty?
I mean isn't liberty exactly the ability to do whatever we want and isnt it just our social contract an agreement to limit our liberty so as to not infringe on others and possibly be infringed on?
That's always been my take on it. That i am free to do whatever but freely agree to the social contract for our mutual benefit.
I never signed any contract!
Invaluable though Locke's contributions to the understanding of rights were, they are diminished somewhat by their reliance on the rather dated notion of a "social contract". There are too many counterexamples to rely on its justification -- e.g. people born into ostensibly "free societies" and unable to escape circumstance. While that's perhaps not quite as common as the "compassionate left" would argue, it happens nevertheless. A necessary prerequisite for the existence of a "contract" is the ability to opt out, either by not entering it (for an explicit contract), or to exit it (for an implicit contract), which in the context of "society" is the ability to leave that society into which you were (rather forcibly) born.
Both "liberty" and "freedom" are used in a variety of contexts, and can mean a variety of related, but distinct concepts. But, as a sociopolitical construct, the meaning of "liberty" is essentially self-limiting.
As a sociopolitical construct, liberty must be shared by all, or it does not exist. For instance, imagine a society of two individuals. Obviously, if one of the individuals owns the other, the society does not represent liberty. Only by neither individual owning the other can the system be said to represent liberty.
I cannot have the liberty to kill you, because you would then lack the liberty to kill me. Therefore, neither of us has the liberty to kill the other.
Liberty, universal and shared, is limited thus. My right to swing my fist ends at your nose. My right to do as I please cannot include preventing you from doing as you please, and vice versa.
No social contract necessary.
You stay out of
my business (not you especially). Simple as that.