Let us start with some definitions.
Freedom: the quality or state of being free: such as: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
- freedom from care
d : unrestricted use
- gave him the freedom of their home
- spoke the language with freedom
f : the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken
- answered with freedom
: improper familiarity: boldness of conception or execution
: a political right
Anarchy: : absence of government
b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority
- the city's descent into anarchy
2a : absence or denial of any authority or established order
- anarchy prevailed in the ghetto
b : absence of order : disorder
Irresponsible: : not responsible: such as
a : not answerable to higher authority
- an irresponsible dictatorship
b : said or done with no sense of responsibility
- irresponsible accusations
c : lacking a sense of responsibility
d : unable especially mentally or financially to bear responsibility
- had authoritarian parents
2: of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people
- an authoritarian regime
I copied and pasted from Merriam Webster dictionary online so the formatting is a bit much, however, I wanted to present it all. I will not be using vast comparisons in this post.
Before I get to discussing freedom a side point. I am sure you have heard the phrase: it is better to ask forgiveness than ask for permission.
This phrase was used to encourage innovation and taking chances on various new ideas in business. Successful corporate executives need people to step up and lead their various projects etc for two reasons, one to move the business forward and two to find out who can lead or take their place. This phrase came about by identifying those types of people. It has become the precursor for a hodgepodge set of excuses for people who just didn’t want to do their job correctly. Or to try and act like they were innovative, when in reality they were just avoiding work or didn’t like the work they were assigned.
On another side note, doesn’t it frustrate you when you see people go to extreme efforts to avoid doing work that doesn’t take anywhere near the effort they are exerting in the first place.
So, you have enormous amounts of energy expended by people who accomplish nothing acting offended when you bring it to their attention. And they use the above phrase. People forget the goal and will spout off anything to get their way.
Are, we as a country, in the same boat? See the definitions of freedom above. And here is one specific example of lack of choice or action. I cannot choose my cable provider. I am stuck with the company that has the monopoly in my neighborhood. There is no choice. If I do not like them, cannot afford them, or are upset with their service my options are to try a completely different type of service. I have some freedom, but I do not have complete freedom of choice. This is an example of corporate America using our government to give them the authority to choose for me. And this example is exactly what our forefathers fought for and wrote our Constitution for 240 years ago. No one should have authority to choose how you should live in your life. This is just an example, and you or I could write hundreds of specific examples from our lives.
We have to be careful though in separating freedom from anarchy and irresponsibility. You have the freedom to drive your car. You do not have the freedom to drive your car into a building. This is irresponsibility or if just used to wreak havoc in an environment, anarchy. Driving is a privilege because it comes with responsibility. Yet, having a privilege and the responsibility it comes with does not take away your freedom to drive. We make rules so we can all share the road. Yet, these rules also do not hinder your freedom to drive. We may take away someone’s freedom to drive if they show incapability to drive. It may be temporary such as a friend taking keys away from someone for the night who is inebriated or society taking them away permanently because they were arrested multiple times driving while intoxicated. Some people, especially those who lost the right to drive, may say this is authoritarianism. And they are incorrect. We make our laws through representative government, no one individual or exclusive group has complete authority. You can have freedom, yet having responsibility for your actions does not take away from your freedom.
Freedoms can be determined from an individual’s perspective, but freedom is determined by how you can make choices in your life. Unfortunately at times people use freedoms to act irresponsible. The laws that inhibit some behavior or manage it is the mechanism we use to balance freedoms for all versus the irresponsibility of one.
Yet, when a government of its own initiative write laws that are not representative of the people then the government has taken away freedom. Or enact laws based on the desired outcome of an exclusive group. So the cable providers took away our freedom when they lobbied for the neighborhood partitions. This is one specific example of an exclusive group (lobbyists) usurping our freedoms. The lobbyists say they have the freedom to lobby our government which in a general sense is true, however, when they cross the line of using our government to define a line that affects us and benefits them, they have used their rights to abuse ours. This is turning freedom on its head to create indirect authoritarianism. And this is a microscopic example of what is happening in our country and one way we our losing freedom.
King George of England dictated directly how the Colonies should interact with England. Our forefathers wanted more control of their lives and livelihoods. Our forefathers gave us the ability to choose our freedoms as a society/country through the use of representative government knowing that we have an inalienable right to choose our destiny, yet understanding as a country we must also protect each others’ rights and freedoms. It is not a “trade off” or compromise, but a dedicated use of authority created and managed by the people for all the people. No one individual is better than another individual. The laws allow people to be more successful, but not better or treated better.
Going back to the lobbyist example, we have allowed through our own inaction an indirect authority to control our lives. We gave up the same freedoms our forefathers gave us by not using the mechanism, our representative government, gave us to avoid an authoritarian government. By default, the elitists or what some call the donor class has taken our freedoms away by abusing their use of freedoms. And it is now so ingrained in our society we have Supreme Court rulings called Citizens United. This institutionalized the elitists dominating the takeover of our country. The very same freedoms we cherish were used against us to accomplish what our forefathers fought for us to have. The ability for us to choose to be free from oppression.
So what is freedom. Freedom is choice. The choice can be good or bad. It is not a choice to control or affect another person’s freedoms or life. Choosing to inflict control on another is not a choice of freedom, it is an active choice to take away freedom. You are not free when you control others, because now your lives are intertwined and you give up the right to freedoms for yourself. People will think they are free, but in reality they now have a new responsibility of taking care of the lives they control. Unfortunately, these types of people do not care for this task and let the people they control rot of their own volition. And this benefits the authoritarian because it keeps people from standing up to and renouncing the authority. Yet they are not free of the people they control. Sooner or later they have to answer.
A representative government defines people’s freedoms and also their responsibilities. Freedom does not give you the right to be irresponsible. To be free, you have to stay free of others such as affecting or dictating their outcomes. You hit a car while driving, you have taken away their right to drive whether temporarily due to the car’s damage or more permanently due to the other driver’s damage. You may say you are free to do what you want, but that is not freedom that is anarchy. Just like freedom is you not being controlled by an authoritarian government it is also not complete absence or responsibility. That is absence or denial of any authority. You can have this in an utopian society, yet have you seen one ever. Utopia is a dream we can have, but till we get there we have the freedom to create an authority that best represents us and protects us individually and our freedoms in general.
Our forefathers made this choice for us and we celebrate it today. It seems though we have forgotten what we are celebrating. So, please take the time today, tomorrow, next week etc to remind yourself what is freedom and what are our freedoms. It is not anarchy or irresponsibility, but freedom not to be controlled by another, to have a life defined by another, to have choices decided for you. I am not talking about decisions, I am talking about choices. Sometimes we go to work and have to do what the boss says, it is our job. We should be able to choose the job we want by having education and opportunity to choose our careers etc. That is a freedom, once we choose the job some decisions or policies we follow are inherent in the job. These types of rules do not hinder our freedoms. They are chosen and we have the ability to change. Once that is taken away then your freedom has been taken away.
We still have freedom. We still have a representative government. It was slowly eroding away due to our inaction or shirking our responsibilities as citizens, but we still have the ability to choose to keep it. Soon though we may lose this ability or our freedoms. For now, the fight is in the voting booth and interacting with our representatives to bring back balance in how we are represented. And we must act, the erosion is accelerating. The recent tax reform law shifts the balance of power even more away from the people, the lack of purpose for education in our society, the demeaning of certain groups of people by others are very specific actions that take away our freedoms; all of ours.
The freedom to have a representative government so we can expand our freedoms to grow and cherish who we are as a people have been fought many times. We should not let their efforts go in vain because we sit idly by not understanding what is freedom and what must be done to maintain it or continue to grow and flourish for others throughout our world.
Freedom has a purpose and is a benefit. We cannot let others misuse it to harm us in any shape form or fashion.
Have a great day celebrating our Independence Day, yet do not forget what it is we are celebrating. Happy 4th. Cheers.
And a couple of other side notes:
We call ourselves a Christian nation, yet we seem to forget that choosing to serve brings new freedom to ourselves and others. Choosing to serve others does not mean choosing to be a servant, but choosing to give of ourselves for the betterment of all.
And in another environment I made the casual comment about President Andrew Jackson having a “Kitchen” cabinet and now we have Trump’s “Propaganda” Cabinet sometimes referred to as Fox and Friends and Hannity. Just sayin’ ha ha ha
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