Good post Dachs, who was the bloke in the fifties?
And do you think we are living in a free society today?
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Hah! Just this morning as I was making up my bed I felt grateful.
At the end of each day, to feel healthy while turning back my bedspread, removing decorative pillows, turning on my reading lamp, and snuggling up in a clean, warm bed with my tablet and a current fiction book to read before falling asleep and knowing I was kind to someone, and someone was kind to me this day.
Yes, itās the small things that matter.
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Compared to the unfree society I came from, which was totalitarian and closed, it sure is.
Like many other terms a free society is used for different concepts. Iām using it for a society based on a separation of power and in which the law rules.
Let me explain it by looking at the differences for an individual.
Was I allowed to manage my life by making choices? No. I couldnāt choose a job freely as my children can. Were different ideas tolerated unconditionally? No. If you refused to serve in the military, youād be imprisoned for 18 months and would have even fewer choices afterwards.
You said youād been on a cruise. Imagine you wouldnāt even get a passport and were not allowed to leave the UK. Would that be OK?
You wrote you were working hard. Imagine your hard-earned Pounds were virtually worthless and wouldnāt take you anywhere. No savings, no car, no home of your own, only clothing and consumer goods of poor taste and quality. Only a small selection of food. No fruits of any sort except apples if youāre lucky. Queuing up for everything on a daily basis.
Worst of all: No chance of ever improving your lifestyle. No prospects, no changes possible. Thereād be limits everywhere. The state would tell you how to live, so to speak. Youād be told which organisations to join, which films to watch, which books to read, what flat would be enough for you. Youād be instructed how to see the world. Your own ideas would not be accepted. Youād have learnt: People in other countries of the free world would be living their lives as they see fit but not you. Your life would be restrained by a dominant party and its ideas. Contradiction and deviance were not allowed. Welcome to an oppressive society as opposed to a free one.
Just a brief and incomplete outline of why I think Iām living in a free society.
In the fifties there was only one chap at the helm, our PM Adenauer being in the right place at the right time. Donāt want to even think of what couldāve happenedā¦
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Thanks for your comprehensive answer Dachs, it sounds horrific, but being born when and where I was, it would be such a contrast and to be thrust into that world would be unbearable.
However, I think someone (or a group) with world power and wealth are working towards that future scenario bit by bit.
But not in my lifetimeā¦
Wasnāt it Adolf who said āIf you want to control the people, take away their freedoms in small increments?ā
I could be wrong about Adolf, but itās the quote I was focusing onā¦
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That is where the inconsistency may be.
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I donāt know who coined that phrase. It describes the well-known piecemeal tactics used to reach certain aims. We have to be on our guard to prevent that from happening.
Just as an aside, Bob, you sound as if thereād be no difference between apprenticeship and degree courses at university. As has already been pointed out by others, there clearly is one. I agree with you that some degree courses may be questionable but itās up to the university which courses they offer. Thatās academic freedom in a free society 
(see above) rather than the state interfering. That said, degree courses should not be reduced to school-based learning and school-like conditions as you seem to imply. A broader approach than just focusing on the requirements for the given job is needed.
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Ahhh gratitudeā¦ for all sorts of things: clean water, being born where and when I wasā¦ being able to drive without it being a political statement that could get me killedā¦ being able to wear what I want without it getting me killedā¦ not having to work myself to the bone just to pay billsā¦ having wonderful siblings and great friendsā¦ so much to be grateful forā¦
thanks for the reminder to look at these
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So right 
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Iām grateful for living to be 75 and considered oldā¦It gives me the right to moan and look at the world through critical eyesā¦
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My Freedom Pass that enables me to travel over such a large area without having to pay.
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I donāt know where you are based Helen, but they are talking about making the Freedom Pass valid for buses only, putting an end to free tube travel.
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Malicious rumours that have been flatly denied.
It was never about existing holders, but a maybe for the future.
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Iām grateful for 2 great kids 25 and 30 and both have worked since they left school, no grandchildren yet but you never know
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The Buck stops here.
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After Sue was told my gall bladder was so bad that I might not survive the operation
that was a few years ago now, so for me everyday is a bonus. I posted about this before
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Iām very grateful that I was able to walk away from salaried (and stressful) work at 51 and quit working completely at 56. But in fact behind that, Iām grateful that my qualifications and early work experience got me into a pretty well paid career. And behind that Iām grateful that I got my qualification at a time when the state fully paid for university education so I was not burdened by debt like people today. Indeed thereās every chance that Iād have not gone to university if I in that position today as my parents could not have afforded to subsidise me. And behind that Iām grateful that my parents fully supported me going to university and my comprehensive school was good enough to give a very wide range of subjects, some of which got me grades to get into the university I wanted.
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I think most people post about the big things they are grateful for, but most of them are a given and have only been possible out of hard work and good decisions in life.
Personally, it goes without saying that Iām Iām grateful for the big things, but Iām also grateful for the smaller things too, like being able to write on the forum and enjoy the company of very good friendsā¦Even if itās only on a screen.
You receive my utmost gratitude Azz for making this possibleā¦
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Being able to drive out on a Wet Sunday morning to the coast just over into Cumbria and have chips, fish and mushie peas sat in the car, and then a zzzz. Then a mug of coffee.
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Room for a small one in the back?
My kinda life Wackā¦
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