The meaning of 'Freedom'...

[Boerseun]

This thread is the horrible stepchild of the thread "What is the meaning of Life".

Okay.

So much for introductions.

Any case - I've postulated there that the meaning of Life is the eternal search for Freedom. Now be a good and decent citizen and don't take me on about that in this thread. This thread is about your own personal opinion of what 'Freedom' actually is. And, to be sure, you can always go for the overused political definition of 'Freedom' by which you can choose your leaders, etc., but by doing that you will earn serious points on the suction meter. If you say that 'Freedom' is the right to vote, you will suck, in my mind.

Freedom is much more ethereal than that. Freedom, in my mind, is the freedom of the person. I honestly don't know how to better put it. And freedom of the person, however impossible it might be, implies the absence of the State. I haven't parked this here thread thing to promote anarchy, I'm just interested in what you'd consider real Freedom (notice the gratioutous capital F) to be?

[TheBigDog]

Mr. Mullet, I promise a much more thoughtful addition to this thread later. All I can say right now is that your mind is going to suck.

Bill

[InfiniteNow]

To me, the term conjures up parellels to the concepts of nirvana, enlightenment, and orgasm, but not necessarily in that order.

[Rincewind]

Freedom to me is just a state of mind, a way of thinking about how I choose to control my life. Freedom comes of a compromise in choices -- for instance, I choose to have a long-term marriage partner, and that allows me many emotional and developmental freedoms, but denies me others; that is my choice.

Living in a somewhat politically and economically stable society gives me the freedom to follow my own chosen path in life, and to make a living doing what I love to do. It allows me that freedom, and the consequent freedom to grow as an individual by having community support mechanisms in place which give me the freedom to fail in what I choose to do without dying as a consequence.

I am also free to think as I choose, although not always free to express that thinking, and not always free to live by that thinking. That is a discipline that is necessary to support the type of society that gives me that freedom in the first place.

As I said, freedom is a state of mind, maybe even an illusion, because in society it is paradoxically bound up in restrictions. I guess this is why we need to make a careful distinction in our thinking between freedom and licence.

[Jay-qu]

Freedom: Been able to eat sleep and crap when you want to. What I mean is that you can do what you want when you want. True freedom to me isnt something that can be achieved on this planet, without it degrading to pure anarchy.

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by Jay-qu

Freedom: Been able to eat sleep and crap when you want to.

That, per definition, excludes working for a salary? Employers frown upon employees sleeping on the job, notwithstanding the fact that sleeping might be the single most stimulating thing you can ever do at work...

Great replies! I dig!

[Racoon]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

This thread is the horrible stepchild of the thread "What is the meaning of Life

Any case - I've postulated there that the meaning of Life is the eternal search for Freedom. If you say that 'Freedom' is the right to vote, you will suck, in my mind.

Freedom is much more ethereal than that. Freedom, in my mind, is the freedom of the person

More like the "incestuous" child of other thread.

Freedom to me, is a mental state as well. They can chain my body, but not my mind! (although being chained would suck)

Freedom is the ability of Art to express itself
Freedom of mind is the ability to see beyond status quo and conjecture.

"Freedom reaches man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make" ___Bruce Lee

Its a sense of being able to DO, what you want to DO!

It also means to not be "saddled down" with something as well...
Freedom from disease, heartache, and addiction.

It can mean a lot of different things. So I hope that doesn't totally suck in your mind. But you have the freedom to think otherwise

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by TheBigDog

Mr. Mullet, I promise a much more thoughtful addition to this thread later. All I can say right now is that your mind is going to suck.

Thanks for the thought, Mr. Dog Sir, but your prediction on my mind going to suck is going to receive very short odds - that thing's been known to suck for years...

[Boerseun]

How about 'Freedom' being the glad and willful embracing of your responsibilities?

That sounded like something from a high school councillor. But still - it sounded good, okay? There might even be something to it...

[TheFaithfulStone]

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.



Okay, now the real reply.

There is "freedom of" and "freedom from." Generally speaking if you have "freedom of" something you have freedom "from" it's antecedent. But just because you have "freedom from" something doesn't mean you have "freedom of" it's antecedent. For example - I can have "freedom from" harm - but possibly at the cost of my "freedom of" movement. Like not walking through alleys at night.

So "Freedom" or Capital F freedom - like most "Capital Letter" words has little to do with some abstract platonic form, and everything to do with the balance of 'freedom of' and 'freedom from' Capital F Freedom is about what you want it to be - much like Racoon said.

Freedom is a state of mind, man.

I don't know if pure Freedom is ever achievable, but I've got a criteria for what helps.

Freedom is anything that helps to advance human excellence. And it strikes me that nearly all of these are 'freedom's of' and not freedom's from.

TFS