Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
How are we defining 'freedom'?
None of us are 'free' from our own mortality, the laws of our various lands, the physical constraints of our bodies, the impulses of instinct and the subconscious, the need to eat, sleep and shelter.
What is this 'freedom' whereof you speak?  |
When I say freedom vs. security, I mean the freedom to live without unnecessary government intrusion upon our private lives; the freedom to choose how we live, how we express our religious sentiments or lack thereof, how we chose to seek happiness and contentment. The freedom I speak of is the freedom to criticize those government policies with which we disagree without fear of censorship or imprisonment such as occurs today in China, or death, as occurs today in Iraq, or banishment as in the former Soviet Union, or being hauled before committees and pressured to inform on like-minded friends and colleagues, as happened in the United States during the McCarthy era.
Of course there will always be cultural, familial, ethical and social restrictions upon all who chose to live among other human beings; that goes almost without saying, and necessary limits upon our personal actions in so far as these actions affect other people with whom we come into contact. As the saying goes, your right to swing your fists ends where my nose begins. But certain freedoms are too important to surrender simply because they at times can lead to rocking society out of its tranquil security. I speak here of freedoms such as the right to peaceful assembly, or the right of the press to report the facts without fear of political reprisal.
Now if we want to talk about whether any of us are truly free in terms of free will verses determinism; that is another subject altogether. The freedoms I am speaking of here are the freedoms that societies grant to all their members.