#177923 - 07/03/08 05:38 PM
diabolical liberty
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stranger
Registered: 06/20/08
Posts: 4
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I've come across this phrase - "a diabolical liberty" - a few times recently, most notably in a Jeffrey Archer book. I've never heard it before. A Google search comes up with some bands, comics, and movies, all from the UK, which, combined with Archer's use, leads me to believe it's from across the pond.
Am I to assume it's approximately equivalent to "giving someone enough rope to hang himself" or a "double-edged sword"?
Is there any known etymology?
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#177928 - 07/03/08 10:52 PM
Re: diabolical liberty
[Re: gaius novus]
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member
Registered: 01/16/08
Posts: 155
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I wasn't sure that I'd ever heard or read carnal license, but maybe I had; an exact wording Google search fetched 182 results. Might diabolical liberty and carnal license be alike in meaning, sometimes anyway?
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#177941 - 07/04/08 10:22 AM
Re: diabolical liberty
[Re: BranShea]
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old hand
Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
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" The peasants mistook spiritual liberty for carnal license."
- Schaff, VII, §75, "The Peasants' War: 1523-1525"
"My opinion is that it is better that all the peasants be killed than that the princes and magistrates perish, because the rustics took the sword without divine authority. The only possible consequence of their satanic wickedness would be the diabolic devastation of the kingdom of God. "
(Letter to Nicholas Amsdorf at Magdeburg, from Wittenberg.)
From here "carnal licence" looks more like "licence to kill".
( 007 again ) Both quotes concern Martin Luther's reaction to the peasants' uprising in (from memory, don't quote me on the date) ca 1525. "Carnal license" means giving free reign to 'the flesh' (which means the sinful human nature). The peasants, in Luther's view, were simply venting their uncontrolled hatred and fury in an orgy of violence. Though he didn't recommend either, Luther preferred even Tyranny to Anarchy, since at least in Tyranny the basic infrastructure of society remains intact, and there is less bloodshed. Maybe if Luther was President of the US in 2002 the course of recent history might have been different...
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#177943 - 07/04/08 11:08 AM
Re: diabolical liberty
[Re: The Pook]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 07/10/05
Posts: 1773
Loc: Apple Valley, CA, USA
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I wonder if diabolical liberty might be another expression for the tendency of the Neocons to circumscribe our "liberty" with restrictions intended to promote our comfort and safety but which in the long run restrict our freedoms (Luther's 'anarchy'?), tending to the creation of a police state (his 'tyranny'?)
Edited by dalehileman (07/04/08 11:10 AM)
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dalehileman
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#177952 - 07/04/08 01:13 PM
Re: diabolical liberty
[Re: twosleepy]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 07/10/05
Posts: 1773
Loc: Apple Valley, CA, USA
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Those who wold give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety--Ben Franklin
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dalehileman
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#177975 - 07/04/08 10:53 PM
Re: diabolical liberty
[Re: twosleepy]
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old hand
Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
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That's what I thought, more or less, and all the defs flummoxed me! It seemed to be a deliberately oxymoronic phrase, pointing out that while freedom is highly desirable, it also has its "diabolical" drawbacks. :0) I suppose the original (and literally diabolical!)concept of "diabolical liberty" (though not the phrase itself) is that offered by the serpent in Genesis 3. The knowlege of good and evil gained by an autonomous declaration of independence from God comes at the price of suffering the consequences of becoming evil, namely estrangement from God.
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#177976 - 07/04/08 10:59 PM
Re: diabolical liberty
[Re: dalehileman]
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old hand
Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
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I wonder if diabolical liberty might be another expression for the tendency of the Neocons to circumscribe our "liberty" with restrictions intended to promote our comfort and safety but which in the long run restrict our freedoms (Luther's 'anarchy'?), tending to the creation of a police state (his 'tyranny'?) Ironically the Iraq War/"War on Terror" seems to have achieved both simultaneously. In Iraq it has resulted in Anarchy in the name of providing Liberty from Tyranny. And in Western coalition countries it is resulting in a drift towards Tyranny by the erosion of Liberties in the name of protection from the forces of Anarchy. Oh what tangled webs...
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