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You’ve got to admit, seeing Thucydides and Linux together in the same sentence isn’t something ordinary. “Linux” and “free” is far more common, for obvious reasons. But whether Linux is free is one discussion; whether it’s a peaceful operating system yet another.

So where does Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian, enter the picture?

You might recall from some previous posts – for instance, the concluding section of writing academic theses – that Cornelius Castoriadis, drawing on Thucydides, puts forward an apt suggestion: We can be free or we can be peaceful, but being both is impossible.

In our time – when to some/many/most/[pick depending on your neighbors] people to be free means to own guns – understanding the repercussions of freedom becomes more pressing than ever.

And yes, this includes your operating system! However, I should make one thing clear here: The role of this post is not to glorify one OS and snub others. It’s not even about computers and technology – not primarily at least. The post is about society.

A Brief Outline of Linux: Free and not Peaceful

Before we get to the part that matters, society, a very brief word on Linux. Chances are, you’re reading this on either a Windows or a Mac computer. As I said, the focus of this post is not technology, and though I will make comparisons and find parallels, to each their own. I use Linux as well as Windows. Operating systems are tools; it’s not worth becoming too attached to them on ideological grounds.

The key lies in understanding the repercussions of our choices.

Linux is Free

Linux is free, in multiple senses of the word. It’s free as in, it doesn’t cost anything to obtain a copy. It’s also free as in, open-source; anyone can modify the code and create their own version – which also explains why, as I write these lines, there are about 1000 different versions (“distros” as they are called).

Linux is also free because these distros start from Tiny Core, a Linux distro that takes as little as 17MB – yes, you read that right – all the way up to distros like Kubuntu that requires close to 4GB. Take your pick! Moreover, Linux allows you to fully, fully customize them. You can pretty much do whatever you want with them.

However, all this freedom comes at a price (no pun intended).

Linux is not Peaceful

To be fair, there are Linux versions that are very user-friendly – such as Linux Mint, for example. They are as or more friendly than Windows – not to mention, because they lack the privacy-invasive nature of commercial operating systems, you don’t have to go through 100 pages of “acknowledging” (rather, mindlessly clicking) you’ve read the terms of service.

However, in general, freedom to be your own master comes at the price of losing peace. In plain terms: The more you want to exercise the freedom Linux offers, the more you need to figure out how things work, how to do something, why it doesn’t “just work”.

Overall, the more customized the experience, the more you have to figure things out. You can begin with a ready-to-use Linux Mint, or start from a net install of Debian (or, gasp!, Arch Linux) and install everything manually.

To name one example, Debian is my go-to Linux distro; and I dread every, single, time, I have to install it on a new machine. On one laptop, bluetooth works but doesn’t pair with headphones (= endless hours figuring out why, searching online forums or telling ChatGPT it’s an idiot for not being able to help me); on another laptop, bluetooth works fine but the touchpad doesn’t (ditto). On yet another, everything works but I need to figure out why the WiFi doesn’t, bloody, work.

And I still go for Debian. Am I stupid? No – or, in any case, not because of this. Rather, I have consciously chosen to be free, rather than peaceful.

The lesson of Thucydides and Castoriadis

I have shared this incredible 1-min video before, but allow me to do so once more:

Click to display the embedded YouTube video

Or, if you prefer, here’s a transcript – as provided by the person who uploaded the video (as a native Greek speaker, I can confirm it’s an accurate translation):

The natural tendency of mankind is towards slavery of any form, towards inertia, towards irresponsibility, and towards submission to an external authority, whether that authority is in Heaven, on in Kremlin, or in Berchtesgaden with Hitler.
Will modern man be able to break through his chains once more and overcome his natural tendency towards inertia, tranquility, and irresponsibility?
Will modern man stop being satisfied with his “little place” in society, meaning all he does, when he comes back from work, is to watch a football game, or an action film, or porn? That is our “little place” in life.
Will modern man be able to overcome his bonds and sacrifice tranquility for freedom?
Thucydides makes it clear. You will either have freedom or tranquility. You will have to choose. You will either be free or tranquil. But you can not have both.

Every choice we make – from what you buy to put on bread to the operating system you use – is a social action. I’d go as far as calling it a moral action, too, but perhaps that’s a different discussion.

More importantly, it’s a choice that takes you closer to either of these two extremes: tranquility or freedom. Most of us swim somewhere in the middle, the way we try to navigate between being an artist or a writer.

What Would Jesus Thucydides Castoriadis You Do?

The wordplay of the heading makes a subtle argument: Forget about heroes. The concept of heroes must be irrelevant for rational, thinking individuals. We can be inspired by others, learn from them (after all, humans are social beings), but we cannot blindly apply simple answers to complex questions.

To some of us, tranquility over freedom (and its associated meanings) is more important. If you simply don’t want to think about food shopping and cooking, and you prefer to have your meal delivered, that’s OK. If, instead, you want to buy your own groceries, paying attention to their origin, and cooking them the way you like, that’s OK too.

What’s not OK is to not be aware of the motivations for and repercussions of your actions. This only blinds you to the social context and makes it less likely to be either free or tranquil.

You want to use Windows/Apple (peaceful, not free) because “it just works”? Do it. You want to use Linux (free, not peaceful) to have full control? Do it. But in both cases, you must be aware of what and why you’re doing it.