by Lawrence Wilson, MD

FREEDOM – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Ó April 2010, The Center For Development

Freedom is a word that is used a lot, but its meaning is not always clear. This is especially important at this time because America is currently deciding how much freedom her people will have. She is deciding whether there will be freedom to buy one’s own type of health insurance, as well as the end of freedom over the economy and their money. Let us explore what freedom really means at a deeper level.

FREEDOM IS THE OPPOSITE OF STRUCTURE OR SLAVERY

Freedom, as the word is used in this article, means control over one’s own life. Its opposite is slavery, in which a person is not in control of one’s life and instead, someone else controls the purse strings, or controls the land, or controls the health care system.

In the political sphere, it means control over one’s major life decisions, over one’s destiny militarily, and over the control of all resources. These include money, homes, roads, autos, air travel and every other possible resource.

Freedom in an economic sense has to do with control over one’s own earnings or income, freedom from taxation – which is just confiscation of wealth by governments – and the ability to dispose or of use one’s own wealth, property or money as one sees fit. For example, having millions of dollars is not too helpful if environmental laws prevent one from developing one’s property or business.

These are the most critical forms of freedom that are up for discussion. The American Bill of Rights also guarantees freedom to worship as one chooses, freedom to bear arms, freedom of speech and of the press and many other types. All are very important.

However, freedom means more than these simple rights. Let us explore freedom in more depth.

FREEDOM EQUATES WITH GOODNESS

Freedom is the ability to do as you please. This is not simply a selfish concept, as many believe. It is also the ability to do good to others, even though others do not necessarily deserve it or ask for it. This may seem trite, but it is an important quality of freedom that separates Americans from other people around the globe in many instances.

This quality goes by other names, such as compassion, openness, friendliness, charitableness and others. It is an important quality, in fact, as it is a mark of an advanced civilization and advanced intellects. Free people are usually better at realizing what others really need, even if the others do not ask and don’t even know what they need or how to ask for it.

This occurs because people who are in control of their lives often have a much better understanding of what is important in life, and what is required to obtain it. Slaves, by contrast, do not have this understanding nearly as well.

FREEDOM IS BRAVE

Bravery is another quality only found in free people. This is because bravery is the willingness to give up one’s money, one’s reputation and even one’s life, at times, for a good cause. Bravery cannot be forced on people, in other words. Slaves may fight hard and long, but they cannot be said to be brave. They are simply strong and able.

Bravery is only possible when one can do as one chooses. So whether the bravery is championing a new idea, opening a new business venture that may not succeed, starting a new relationship that may not succeed, or something else, bravery is mainly found in people who have a measure of freedom. To the extent that freedom is extinguished by too much structure and too much control by government, bravery tends to disappear proportionately.

FREEDOM IS MORE COMPASSIONATE THAN SLAVERY

This is related to the paragraph above about goodness. However, it is more than this. Free people tend to be more aware of another’s plight. I say this because those who are controlled are usually more concerned with their own situation nd how to advantage themselves. Only those who are truly free inside are not controlled, and therefore can be more concerned about others.

This is not to say that all those who live in slavery are less compassionate. However, overall, freer people are more compassionate than slaves who must always be fighting among themselves for crumbs, or the small handouts that government benefits provide.

FREEDOM IS BRIGHTER THAN SLAVERY

The word bright, as used here, means that free people tend to be smarter, more capable, more astute and more aware. Some tend to be more brilliant which is a similar idea. This is because freer people are given many more opportunities to use their brains and even their muscles. Slaves, by contrast, are mainly told what to do and how to act. This does not build creativity, intelligence, ingenuity and other qualities nearly as well as making more of one’s own decisions.

FREEDOM TENDS TO FAVOR EXCELLENT MORALITY COMPARED TO SLAVERY

This is a very important distinction. Those who advocate government control of property, businesses, the environment, medical care, education and other aspects of society believe they are doing the moral thing by their views. However, this may produce a cleaner environment, but it does not produce moral people.

To develop morals, one must have choices. As a rule the more choices, the more chance one has to learn moral values and moral principles of behavior, thought and action. In contrast, when one is controlled by others, one is more like a slave or caged animal who may behave well, but not due to moral development, but rather just out of fear of punishment by the authorities. This is a very important argument for a free and libertarian society, rather than a liberal, social democracy and social justice.

Also, an observation is that in totalitarian and socialist nations such as in Europe and Russia, today, people do not uphold as high moral standards, in general, as they do in America, for example. It is as though if the government is more oppressive and controlling, the people follow this example and oppress each other more.

FREE PEOPLE TEND TO BE MORE WHOLESOME THAN SLAVES

Free people must control their own lives and make wise decisions at all times to survive and prosper. For this reason, they learn and they teach their children how to live well, and often how to live wholesomely in order to keep their mental faculties sharp and functioning well.

Slaves, on the other hand, and people living in controlled societies have no such motive to act wholesomely. As a result, in most of Europe and even Asia, sexual mores are much worse, lying, stealing and cheating are worse, and as a result the health and well-being of everyone is affected negatively.

FREE PEOPLE TEND TO BE MORE RELIGIOUS, OR CONNECTED TO SPIRIT, THAN SLAVES

The explanation for this is similar to the explanation in the paragraph above. Free people tend more to rely on their intuition and spiritual guidance, because they must make personal, business and other types of decisions for themselves on a moment-to-moment basis.

In contrast, slaves just rely on the government to make many decisions and therefore often have less need to train their intuitive and religious side of themselves to help make decisions.

STRUCTURE VERSUS FREEDOM

The current struggle between freedom, capitalism and self-control versus more government control can be viewed psychologically, and should be. It is often a struggle that goes on inside each person. Those who favor freedom are those who are confident they can handle it, and they can find their way through the maze of decisions they must make on their own in the use of their resources in order to live a happy life.

Those who favor more outer structure, bigger government, more rules and regulations are those who do not believe, deep down, that they can handle their own life. This is the basic psychological struggle that each person must think about.

As an example, and not to be critical but just to use Mr. Obama as an example, he was raised in a broken family by a hippie mother and an absent father, both of whom left him early in his life, so that he ended up with his grandparents. This would make any young boy and man very insecure. It is not surprising to me that Mr. Obama would strongly favor a large, powerful, overseeing government to “keep everything under control”.

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