Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting.
Alan Dean Foster

Only the educated are free.
Epictetus

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
George Bernard Shaw

Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery.
Lawana Blackwell

While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.
Lenin

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
Malcolm X

Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward.
Patricia Sampson

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson

A right delayed is a right denied.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Freedom, liberty, equality, and human rights are terms often used, even perhaps, overused. Many have talked about them and used them but may never stop to think what they mean by that. What do you mean by it?

What do you consider to be freedom?
Politically, economically, socially, and(for some)spiritually?

This should be intriguing, let us hear it :)

Freedom, native American Indians, live with the land not try and own everything and tax the sh** out of it. Is there anyplace{society} in the world that has true freedom?

Freedom is a tricky goal, because it is difficult to know when you are actually free. You can feel free one moment, and like a slave the next. People often spend their entire lives looking for a freedom that they never seem to find, only to find on their deathbed that they were free the entire time. Witness Kevin Spacey in American Beauty, who, moments before his death, realizes the pleasure in the things he already has.

I believe that freedom is just a word. A word like God, a word like death. A word that has no meaning when you peel back the emotional layers of reality that tell you whether you are free or not. We are either perfectly free, or perfect slaves, both of which have exactly the same meaning, and the distinction is whatever you are feeling like at the time.

I think that one becomes free only when you drop the whole question and deal with existance as it wishes to deal with you. The you are a slave to existance, but it is far better than being a slave to ones emotions, or job, or things, or family.

Speaking of family, I can't think of a more limiting and more freedom-devoid social construct. I am wholly against families and their destructive influences on their progeny. The first thing they do is brainwash you with their ideas and values and desires. Then they force, using threats and "love", you to uphold them when you finally become old enough to say no.

One would probably attain freedom when he attained the total lack of desire.
Desire appears to cause anguish over that which is not attained.
Therefore freedom is a mental attitude, not a physical structure.

"freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose." Janis Japlin

A Definition of Freedom
By Julie Watner


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Freedom is a mental condition-a condition of the spirit. All of us are free, if we but choose to acknowledge it. To borrow from Rose Wilder Lane, freedom is control of self. The essence of your "self" is your mind, soul, and spirit. We all are always free to change our thoughts, improve our knowledge and understanding, change our attitudes and beliefs-the inner part of each of us. We do need more folks to recognize that they already are FREE!

Liberty is a condition of the physical body: the absence of physical restraints. We seek liberty to use our resources, time, intelligence, and energy in the most beneficial (to us) way.

A productive, healthy society of freedom-and liberty-minded individuals is not to be confused with a libertine one. The conditions of liberty and freedom, above all, require individual responsibility in every phase of life. Each of us must take the consequences of our actions, good and bad. This is not easy, especially with our Big Brother the State standing by to present at least the illusion of "help" with every aspect of our lives.

Because the root of the problem (irresponsibility) is so ingrained, trying to convince others to live the freedom ideas through slogans, speeches, and hype is usually short on results. At best they provide the spark which causes an individual to seek out new information.

The "library of freedom"-books, pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines-not only documents man's quest from ancient times forward, but also is an important, longer lasting way to spread the word and fan the spark of interest into a flame.

But "plain-Jane" and unexciting as it sounds, I believe the most effective way to spread the freedom idea is to educate ourselves and raise our children to be honest, knowledgeable, confident, responsible lovers of freedom-to light a single candle. If each one of us lights another candle, and each of those follows suit, the freedom ideas will grow from a quiet bonfire to a WILDFIRE engulfing everything in its path.

Living in an environment of liberty and freedom is akin to being a parent-it is the best of times; it is the worst of times. With neither can you ever relax your vigilance, there is always work to be done, you are always being called upon to exercise new skills, and improve upon old ones. There is a tremendous amount of worry involved, also discouragement and uncertainty. On the other hand, it is hard to convey to a non-parent, just as to a statist, the joys, rewards, exhilaration, and satisfactions that make the responsibilities worthwhile. You just have to have faith, jump in, and DO IT!






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Editor's Note: This essay was the winner in a contest sponsored by The Customer Company. The stated object of a one-page essay was to define freedom and suggest the best way to implement it.




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The voluntaryist method is "the method of each 'one' doing his best to improve" himself. This is the "quiet" or "patient" way of changing society because it concentrates upon bettering the character of men and women as individuals. As the individual units change, the improvement of society will take care of itself. In other words, "If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself."

I believe that freedom is just a word. A word like God, a word like death. A word that has no meaning when you peel back the emotional layers of reality that tell you whether you are free or not. We are either perfectly free, or perfect slaves, both of which have exactly the same meaning, and the distinction is whatever you are feeling like at the time.-Nasterbater

Not true, especially not for all humans.

I think that one becomes free only when you drop the whole question and deal with existance as it wishes to deal with you. The you are a slave to existance, but it is far better than being a slave to ones emotions, or job, or things, or family.

We are all slaves to existance, that much is clear.

Speaking of family, I can't think of a more limiting and more freedom-devoid social construct. I am wholly against families and their destructive influences on their progeny. The first thing they do is brainwash you with their ideas and values and desires. Then they force, using threats and "love", you to uphold them when you finally become old enough to say no.

Love is the most essential of all human traits/desires. We need it and want it. Families give us love and camaraderie, while allowing a unit be built that raises and supports the group. Families are important. The day we turn back to a Spartan way of life through the entire community is not going to be a good day.

"freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose." Janis Japlin- Echo2

Haha i should have put that in my original post

One would probably attain freedom when he attained the total lack of desire.
Desire appears to cause anguish over that which is not attained.
Therefore freedom is a mental attitude, not a physical structure.- Dan Fussell

hehe pulling the ol' Buddha. Desire is what drives us, what fuels us, and the reason why we have made it here today. To attain "freedom" by abandoning desires and needs, we do get freedom, a freakish freedom from humanity.

However, attaining such a status would grant us rank higher than that of human, we would break our binds and be free. Totally free of all.

When you say my statement wasn't true, you make one argument, when you say for all humans, you destroy the previous argument.

Of course it isn't true for everybody. Everybody has a different lens they look out onto the world with, a lens provided to us by existance. That lens includes our ideas and dreams of freedom.

Merely because they do not see their freedom as a series of words strung together does not mean that it isn't true, it means their lens isn't oriented towards that fact. They may disagree, but reality runs on in the background, despite their objections. If you wish to argue objective reality, you must make objective arguments, not lame subjective ones that depend on each person's verification.

The second part of your quote is my own subjective experience. I did not paint it as truth, I said it was my belief. Others may prefer to have their lives dictated by their jobs, or families. I do not.

Freedom means something different to each person. I guess as long as we feel free...that in itself is a comfort.

Freedom - the ability to do whatever you want so long as it doesn't infringe on anothers ability to do the same.

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."
- Malcolm X

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too."
- Somerset Maugham

"Tyranny is always better organized than freedom."
--Charles Peguy

"Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains."
--Jean Jacques Rosseau. The Social Contract, 1762

"I'd rather be a free man in my grave
Than living as a puppet or a slave..."
The Harder They Come, Jimmy Cliff

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire

"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
John Adams

“No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” --James Madison

"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom."
— Dwight Eisenhower

“…man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”
~ Ronald Reagan

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
-Denis Diderot

Freedom - the ability to do whatever you want so long as it doesn't infringe on anothers ability to do the same.

The libertarian ideal. But no matter what you do, you will always infringe upon the freedom of another person.

To give you a silly example, you just sat in a chair. Harmless enough right? But you just limited the freedom of the entire rest of the world to sit in that chair. How do you decide who gets the chair? In the end, somebody has to make the decision. That decision by definition limits freedom.

Now imagine that chair is an oil field. Or the public airwaves. Or the nearby lake.

I view freedom as associated with particular events, and I view freedome as a qualifiable attribute. It is easier to define it this way for me. It goes like this:

For every event that I may act upon, the degree of freedom I have as associated with the particular event is determined by the range/number of possible options I may choose comfortably. The least free situation is where you have but one option. The completely free situation is where you have near infinite options.

You can extend the level of an "event" indefinitely to evaluate the degree of freedom you have in just about anything. Religion, politics, personal finance, social situations...etc.

To give you a silly example, you just sat in a chair. Harmless enough right? But you just limited the freedom of the entire rest of the world to sit in that chair. How do you decide who gets the chair? In the end, somebody has to make the decision. That decision by definition limits freedom. first come first serve unless the other person has more a real need for it (disability, old etc)

True freedom is being able to breathe when everone around you is suffocating.
Freedom is being able smile in the face of depression.
Freedom is being able to live when everyone you love is dying. Freedom is crying, freedom is laughing, freedom is looking into the eyes of negativity and then pulsating with positive thoughts.
True freedom is being able to sing your whole life story to the world.

-MotherKali

Originally posted by 500lbguerilla
first come first serve unless the other person has more a real need for it (disability, old etc)

In which case you would have the people with more resources grabbing at them first, before anybody else gets a whack at it. The end result would be a concentration of resources in the hands of the richest and most powerful.

True freedom is being able to breathe when everone around you is suffocating.
Freedom is being able smile in the face of depression.

So freedom is rebellion or being better than everyone else? :D hehe

Freedom is crying, freedom is laughing, freedom is looking into the eyes of negativity and then pulsating with positive thoughts.

aka optimism

True freedom is being able to sing your whole life story to the world.

*sings scales to warm up then begins to the tune of the hills are alive*

When i was a boy........ah screw it

i like that little poem kali. :)

thanks

I've been looking for freedom my whole life. And so I have it. Everything I own fits into my car and I have no attachments to hardly any of it. I have less than ten thousand dollars debt, no spouse or career.

It is so easy to get locked into situations where your freedom is sharply curtailed, to allow your thinking to be dictated by others. They start telling you how hard it is to get by in this world, and before you know it, you start agreeing with them. They tell you the 'smart' things to do, if you want to get ahead in this world. Vote Democrat, or Libertarian, go to college, buy instead of rent, all those things. It took me four years to finally start telling all those voices in my head and around me to fuck off, and start listening to the one voice that I could call my own. The only one that could make me free.

Freedom has to be fought for on an individual level. You can't find it in anyone else, or in any political party, or personal possession. But that is where we all look, until reality forces us to look at the one thing that can deliver, ourselves. Then, and only then, will we be free.

Freedom has to be fought for on an individual level. You can't find it in anyone else, or in any political party, or personal possession. But that is where we all look, until reality forces us to look at the one thing that can deliver, ourselves. Then, and only then, will we be free.
Amen