Research of (freedom)

What is freedom

• the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints
• exemption: immunity from an obligation or duty

Freedom. Everyone seems to be for it: liberals and conservatives, libertarians and progressives, hippies and buttoned-down capitalists.

freedom is being able to do what you want to do. This definition encompasses the word root “free” in its myriad forms. Free speech and free beerboth speak of freedom. If you want to mouth off or get drunk, then free speech and free beer are the freedoms for you. In general, political freedom and financial freedom both enable us do more of what we want to do; they both give us more options in life.

This simple definition works for all the factions above. It also explains why these factions are at each other’s throats. We cannot all be 100% free. At some point more freedom for me means less freedom for you. Allow me to illustrate:

I would like to spend more time writing (and rewriting) articles for this site. I would also start a more democratic stock exchange, create a new political party, write a new operating system, and develop some eco-technology moldering in my notebooks. Alas, I lack the time and finances to do these fun and useful things. I could do at least some of them if I were to receive money without having a day job. Financial freedom is freedom. But how to do this…I know! I’ll do what the government does: I’ll collect taxes. You are hereby required to pay your Milsted Tax. Estimate your income for the past year and sent me 1%. I’m cheaper than the U.S. government, and I won’t invade a Middle Eastern country without good reason. This is a bargain!http://www.holisticpolitics.org/WhatIsFreedom/

Other meaning for freedom

is self-determinance; it is the condition of minimal constraint. Naturally, in a society or community, there has to be some constraints — the burglar cannot have the freedom to steal, the thug cannot have the freedom to mug, and the businessman cannot have the freedom to excessively pollute and pay no taxes. But get the balance between personal freedom, social order and ecological integrity right, and the vast majority of citizens can live happily with moderate personal freedom and minimal constraints.

when can we get freedom?

Democracy can only be an agent of freedom if it gives people meaningful voting choices (not just a choice of 2 or 3 parties with only cosmetic differences), and if it ensures that the people have the unbiased and undistorted information necessary to make a choice that is in their interest (which can only happen with a mass media and educational system free from undue governmentand corporate influence). Of course, sometimes the majority may want to use their democratic rights to restrict freedom (for example in the areas of gun ownership, stem cell research, GM foods, pedophilia, the "war against terror" or fox hunting). This is because different freedoms often conflict with each other.

For example, the freedom to have clean air requires restriction of the freedom for factory owners to produce cheap goods by not having to clean up the pollution generated as a by-product. So the freedom for us all to have clean air conflicts with both the freedom of the factory owner to make larger profits (by having to clean up) and the freedom we all have to buy cheap goods. So freedoms do not necessarily conflict between different groups of people, but often with the same group of people. So the support for freedom is always a balancing act, usually between our collective long-term interests and the short-term interests of not only society, as a whole, but also of particular groups of people (which includes corporations and political groups).

Another example of this conflict might be in raising a green tax on large 4x4 vehicles to off-set their greater ecological impact. Many of us, especially 4x4 drivers, consider this an affront to our personal freedom to drive our own choice of car, and yet such a tax is likely to be in the interest of future generations, including the very children of those 4x4 drivers. Which freedom is more important? That should be obvious to anybody, but because so many decision makers are taking short-term and selfish perspectives, long-term public interests are not being respected and freedoms are not being chosen wisely.'

"What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for yourself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing."
— Archibald MacLeish

"The purpose of freedom is to create it for others."
— Bernard Malamud

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
— Edward R. Murrow

http://web.riverdeep.net/current/2002/09/090902_m_freedom.jhtml