Meanings of Freedom
by Don J. Cormier
Freedom
is a word which Americans have been taught to love. However, like
the word love it has many meanings, some of which are almost contradictory.
This often leads to confusion.
When
you say that you want freedom, you may mean that you want to be free to
practice the religion of your choice, or to start a business, or to do
any number of things. If that is what you mean, it may be that for
you, freedom is a tool which may or may not be valuable, depending on the
circumstances.
Consider
the following passage, taken from Ayn Rand's novel, The Fountainhead:1
"In essence, freedom and compulsion
are one. Let me give you a simple illustration. Traffic lights
restrain your freedom to cross a street whenever you wish. But this
restraint gives you the freedom from being run over by a truck. If
you were assigned to a job and prohibited from leaving it, it would restrain
the freedom of your career. But it would give you freedom from the
fear of unemployment. Whenever a new compulsion is imposed upon us,
we automatically gain a new freedom. The two are inseparable.
Only by accepting total compulsion can we achieve total freedom." |
![Page 1 Box](Images/Page_1_Box.gif) I
must hasten to point out that Rand places these words in the mouth of her
novel's villain, and they most certainly do not represent Rand's views
on freedom. However, the quotation emphasizes that the words "free"
and "freedom" can be very confusing.
The
type of freedom U.S. citizens have, and which they usually mistake for
complete freedom, is a system of privileges enshrined in law. It
is "freedom under the law" if such a thing is not a contradiction in terms.
Most libertarians and anarchists want freedom from laws, and do not accept
the U.S. Constitution version of freedom as the true meaning of freedom.
Anarchists
and libertarians generally believe that freedom is lessened by the necessity
of complying with laws human laws. Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor
of this newsletter, has made a useful distinction between two kinds of
laws the laws that men discover and the laws that men enact. According
to Mr. Milam, compliance with physical laws is a legitimate and unavoidable
restriction, but forced compliance with laws that men enact is tyranny.
Based
on my reading and my experiences as a libertarian activist, I have adopted
a working definition of freedom which may be useful to most anarchists
and libertarians: Being free means being able to be, do, and have
what you want, limited only by physical conditions, and the intention to
refrain from initiating physical force or fraud.
There
are several reasons why I believe that this definition is especially useful.
In
the first place, it takes into account that an individual's freedom will
always be limited in some way by the individual's physical context.
Secondly, it recognizes that a person's freedom is likely to be infringed
by other people, and that the individual has the right to use physical
force or fraud to defend against physical force or fraud. Thirdly,
this formula makes no statement about solitary or group living, but is
compatible with either context.
Thinking
about freedom reveals that freedom cannot be usefully discussed without
carefully defining what one means by one's use of the term. The aforementioned
definition will hopefully provide the basis for practical, fruitful discussions.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand,
Bobbs-Merrill Co, New York, 1968 |
The
difference between freedom and permission is usually overlooked.
Coming Attractions
Sam Aurelius Milam III
For
years now, thugs in the US gestapo have conducted outrageous forced entries
into the homes of Americans under the "authority" of no-knock search warrants.
Now, the police in Wisconsin are asking the Supreme Court to approve of
such violent entries without any warrant at all.2
They're not asking if they can do it. They've already done it.
They're asking the court to say, after the fact, that it's acceptable.
Watch
for the US gestapo, coming soon to a front door near you.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw,
March 24, 1997 |
208 346-6406 (fax
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Frontiersman@ida.net |
Frontiersman
479 E. 700 N., Firth, Idaho 83236 |
April 1997
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