A
truly iconic moment from any movie was when William Wallace (Mel Gibson) cried “that
they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom” as he
rallied the Scots to battle against the tyrannical English. He, again, yells
“FREEEDOOOM” as he was being executed. I can hear you, and I agree that this is
very much an idealistic interpretation of a bloodied period of history. But I
needed that image in your mind as I look at the concept of freedom! What do we
mean when we talk of freedom?
The
dictionary perceives it as a noun meaning 1) The power or right to act,
speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. 2)
Absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government.
For
me, it means the right to be who I want to be, to be able to voice my view on
any issue without fear of reprisal, to pursue personal happiness and live the
way I wish to live. I recognise it as encompassing all beings on the
planet. Could it be this simply and I have staggered onto the answer that
philosophers have deliberated over for centuries?
John
Stuart Mills (‘On Liberty’) reasons that it is acceptable for someone to harm
himself as long as he is not harming others, however, individuals are prevented
from doing lasting, serious harm to themselves, or their property, by the harm
principle, as no-one exists in isolation, any harm done to oneself may also harm
others, and destroying property deprives the community, as well as oneself.
Quick
précis: If you are not doing harm to another or their property you can do as
you please? I like that ideal, but again does it define ‘freedom’?
Put
just the word ‘freedom’ into your search engine, you will be very surprised at
the result. The furniture store appeared first on the list; not my concept of
freedom, although I do like their range of goodies. Next is Wikipedia’s entry
for freedom, then Political freedom (Wikipedia again) followed by Freedom of
Information (Australia). Really not much help here but scroll through a couple
of pages….
I
stumbled across the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual guide published
by ‘The Wall Street Journal’and‘The Heritage Foundation’.Who identify
themselves as Washington's No. 1 think tank; so maybe the answer we seek? This
is the web link, http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking. I found it
to be quite informative and very user friendly. The page is easy to follow with
graphics, stats and why your country placed where they did. However that is a
side issue; what we want from this think tank is what Economic Freedoms are?
They answered that, it is ‘a fundamental right so that every human can control
his or her own labour and property. Economically free society allow for
individuals to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with
that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. Thus
providing these free societies government to allow labour, capital and goods to
move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the
extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.’ Who know that our
governments were working this hard?
To
know that I reside in a country that ranks 3rd in the world for
economic freedom, and this is nice, but what does it really mean? I do not own property, I
do have a job and I consume, however I never have enough left over to invest,
but thanks anyway as it is a comfort to know that when I hit the top 10 in ‘The
Times’ best seller list,I will be in the right place to capitalise!
But we are still no closer to an answer! To
find anything close to what I think most would identify as freedom I
was forced to pull out the history books. Freedom was most eloquently
identified by President Franklin D Roosevelt on the 6th January
1942 for his ‘State of the Union Address’:
- We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human
freedoms.
- The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the
world.
- The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own
way—everywhere in the world.
- The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms,
means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy
peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
- The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms,
means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a
thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of
physical aggression against any neighbour—anywhere in the world.
- That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis
for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/fourfreedoms and
you can hear the Man himself giving the speech (4.35), it is really worth it,
as he was a true visionary and I have only copied a small part of the Address.
I
think this sums it up for us all. And here I go again (rose-coloured glass, you
have been warned!!) but if we adopted the concepts that FDR put forth in 1942, then
and only then will we have the freedom we constantly try to immortalise in
books and movies. I will leave you with this quote from another Great Visionary “Freedom
would be meaningless without security in the home and in the streets.” (Nelson Mandela,
speech, April 27, 1995)
The images below are of people, who in my lifetime, have had to fight
for their freedom.
Freedom Rides in Australia (1965) resulted in the Aboriginals gaining
'equality' by referendum on 1967.
Freedom Riders in the USA (1961) help to end segregation.
.
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