What do YOU see as freedom anyways?

[The Straight Story]

Is it freedom from things? Is it freedom to do and be things?

A few years back I read a book about communities in the 1800's that sprang up - from communist communes to Quakers and the Amish.

You could choose to live in such a community, or not. If you chose to do so you were subject to their rules, but you always had the choice to leave (ie, if you had pre-marital sex they could kick you out, fine you, etc - but you were only bound by a voluntary compliance to said group and ways of living/thinking).

People were 'free' to live and associate as they saw fit, and the central (fed) government was by the people and for the people - a structure to insure you were free to do many things. Our collective money over time was seen as something to be used to give us an infrastructure and an ability to enforce that people were free.

There was a simple 'common good' (ie, your ability to be free) but I am starting to think this has slipped a lot with both parties.

On the right and the left we see more and more regulations to punish those who do not conform - from drug wars to garage sales needing government permits. We see more of a collective mentality (your existence affects mine and therefore should be regulated) these days than I think we have ever seen before.

From what we eat, to what we smoke, from what we do on our property (garage sales, fix cars, et al) to what our kids learn/do in school
our society is getting more and more into the personal business of individuals and attempting to control it.

Each year, more an more regulations are placed upon what we do. And what will be the end result? That people can and will be punished if they do not conform.

So what is freedom??? Is it allowing others to give our children birth control pills without our consent? Is it telling a guy who sells alcohol he cannot also allow people to smoke in the same place? Is it forbidding a school from having kids celebrating Halloween and letting kids dress up for it because it might be offensive based on their choice of costume?

Maybe freedom is something we talk about but don't want because we don't like the way some people use it, and in the end we want to control some choices because they don't fit our 'beliefs' whether they be religious or otherwise.

I am not sure anymore what freedom really means (and I am not talking about corporations here, I am talking about people and small businesses).

How free do you feel?

[Mike03]

1. I'm so cynical these days that I see Freedom as

the right to be left alone.

I fantasize about living in a cabin with my dog and cat, and being in contact with my family, but being very independent, learning how to survive on my own, and rejecting a lot of modern technology.