Week 14 - Liberty: Freedom and Governments

When examining these works by Locke and Hume to see how they reflect today's society, I found that Hume's "Of the Liberty of the Press" seemed to fit into today's society a bit more than Locke's works, although they are still somewhat relevant to the way that we govern our lives, or rather, the way that we give up natural rights in order to exist within a society which will protect us and our property. "Of Slavery" by Locke is somewhat irrelevant because slavery was made illegal in most places over two hundred years ago (Although seeing the videos of slave trade in Africa may make this piece a bit more relevant).

When I read "Of the Liberty of the Press" I immediately thought of the absurd amount of new articles that get published every single day on the internet, both real and fake. While Hume was more-so discussing the way in which it was important to have freedom of press in order to be able to share one's ideas about governments and various nuances of the society, it seems like nowadays more news articles are about things that don't necessarily matter, like sports and popular culture.

Of course, if one considers social media rants part of freedom of press, then look no further than Donald Trump's twitter and his millions of followers. Only in a country with freedom of press and speech could someone of his power get away with being so openly contradictory and hypocritical while also offending someone while pushing political agendas. But as Hume makes fairly clear in his piece, as a member of the society one has a choice to not read it. Nobody is able to digest the information that you are reading alone except for you.