What does freedom mean? People talk about freedom all the time,
but what does it mean in real life? Is a person who has a job truly free? What about the responsibilities of having a family or a friend? It’s one thing to be free to make a choice, but after a choice is made, are we truly free anymore?
“Freedom” is a very broad term, and one that people throw around all the time without really understanding it. Politicians use it to defend wars: “We’re fighting for our freedom” when actually most modern wars primarily affect people in the
country in which the war is being waged. I would even say that, used this way,
it CURTAILS our freedom because by spending billions of dollars on a war whose
only “freedom” for us is an unlimited source of oil, for example, that money could
have been used to enhance our freedom at home: freedom to get a good education,
freedom to choose a job based on interest rather than the need for health insurance
On the other hand, freedom in a national sense is the way we tend to view the
world: there are countries with freedom and countries without freedom. But who
determines which is which? If we leave it up to political pundits, we might
never understand what freedom means ourselves. (Of course, people have the
freedom to believe the pundits if they wish).
I do think that some countries have more freedom than others. In some countries, if you write a letter to someone, the government may read and censor what you
wrote. If you criticize the local government for not fixing potholes in the
street, you could get in trouble – even if not, the atmosphere is such that
people are afraid to speak their minds on even such minor subjects. In some
countries, you are not allowed to practice the religion of your choice, or go
wherever you want to go. In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive!
In dictatorships, a lot of people live in fear, which curtails their freedom. They
may be free to have whatever they want to eat, or free to give birth, etc. –
personal things, but not having what we call “First Amendment Rights”
I would say that means those people are not really free.
Freedom, however, doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want to do all the time. Like the second part of the prompt question asked, after you make a choice (and are bound by it), are you still free? I would say yes, because freedom to me
means to have the ability to choose your path in life. Life is a series of
choices and decisions, both good and bad, so even if you have made a choice
that limits you in some way, you still are free because it was YOUR choice. There may be consequences, but these also may involve decisions you have the freedom to make.
However, without freedom, your choices are limited or restricted by external forces – an oppressive government, the lack of money, people who carry concealed guns wherever they go, laws which may not allow a woman to travel freely or go out in public unveiled, etc. Are Americans more free than Arabs? Are rich people more free than poor people? If so, it should not be so.
I believe that freedom is always limited to staying within the law or following
the rules (because if you don’t, you might go to jail!). We are free to break
the rules, but then we must suffer the consequences of doing that. Most people
choose to live within a set of rules because it is what holds us together as a
society and because we are all interdependent: what I do affects you, what you
do affects another person, what another person does affects me, etc. We do not
have the freedom to deny freedom to someone else, if that person has not
infringed on our freedom or anyone else’s.
So, for example, I have the freedom to live the lifestyle I choose, AS LONG AS it
doesn’t hurt anyone else. If persons who are gay wish to get married, they
should have the freedom to do so. This doesn’t affect anyone else’s marriage.
It might violate their moral code – which they have the freedom to have – but they
can apply this moral code to their own lives and leave gay couples alone.
Freedom means being able to seek a partner, and to find love. Forcing someone
to hide their love or to act like they are something they are not, curtails
that person’s freedom.
There are many other personal/moral issues that are being discussed in the national forum, which are really personal freedoms that the government in a free society should not take away.
Again, freedom does not give a person or a government the right to infringe upon or to curtail the freedom of others. My freedom ends where yours begins, as is often said. It doesn’t mean I can get a gun and shoot someone. It doesn’t mean I can hurt someone with my words, such as being rude, impolite, or insulting. Some
people are offended by swearing, so perhaps in public others should make an
effort not to swear. I remember once seeing a sign along a trail in Hawaii that
warned people against nudity on the beach, so as not to curb the freedom to
enjoy it for those who don’t wish to see naked bodies. If you want the freedom
to go nude on the beach, there are plenty of designated nude beaches!! Too many
people these days think that freedom gives them the right to “express
themselves” by swearing loudly on a bus or wearing pants that show their
underwear, or worse, their butt. That’s not freedom, that’s just ugly and offensive.
Another very important issue today involving the meaning of freedom is equating “free speech” with money. The more money you have, according to some (including, apparently, 5 members of the Supreme Court), the more freedom of speech you have a right to. I do not believe that the Founding Fathers, when they wrote, “We the people” meant “we the millionaires, billionaires and multinational
corporations”. One could argue that in the 1700s many people were excluded from
the freedoms set out in the Constitution, but we have supposedly evolved as a
nation to include everyone in these freedoms: people of color, Native
Americans, women, gays, poor people, middle class and rich people. Everyone
should have equal access to the freedoms our Constitution guarantees. No one
group has the freedom to restrict the freedom of the others. Read Animal Farm!
There is much polemic today about the meaning of freedom and during this season in which we celebrate our freedoms – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – everyone should be mindful of the true meaning of freedom. It is not limitless; nothing ever is.