Freedom! – For what, to what… from what?

Freedom is a core value, if not the foundational value of the American Way.

Politicians and special-interest groups often use the rally-cry of freedom to elicit support for their cause.  They stir up our defense mechanisms by telling us that the government is about to strip us of our basic rights and freedoms, and tell us to vote for them as champions of freedom against perceived government overreach.

Fueling our fiery passions with a rally-call to freedom, the end result is that they slyly manage to keep us from doing our homework.  Of course we want freedom!  So, without giving serious consideration to the actual implications of their platform and agenda and its consequences, we rally behind them: “Yah, down with government; up with Freedom!!”

But what is freedom?  What does it mean to be free?  You think you know, until you are forced to, let’s say, explain its meaning to a fourth grader, a ten year-old.  Then what do you say: “Freedom is to be able to do what you want, whenever you want, as you want—to do whatever we please.”  I don’t think so.

Freedom has its rules, regulations and limitations.  Freedom presumes knowledge and responsibility.  Freedom assumes self-control and self-restraint.  Freedom calls for respect and consideration of others.  Freedom requires staying within certain boundaries.  Freedom is never license to do as we please.

I am not free to play the piano.   Why?  Because, I have not learned the rules of playing the instrument—hand placement, finger movement, and chords, etcetera.  That is, I am only free to play the piano and to become a pianist only when I am willing to learn and to submit to the given rules and ‘regulations’ for playing such an instrument.  Likewise, I am not free to play the game of football unless I know and am willing to submit to the rules of the game.  Freedom in life, and in society, is the same.  It calls for the learning of, and the submitting to, life’s positive restrictions for individual and for community—truth, justice, equity, mercy, and love, for example.

And so, we are never truly free in life until we have learned to submit to the given rules and regulations that make for a positive, prosperous, good and just life.  For example, the freedom to drink to excess and become addicted to alcohol and/or drugs is not real freedom.  On the contrary, it is enslavement, which is ruinous and destructive to one’s personal life as well as one’s community.  But learning to submit to the principles and dictates of self-control, moderation, and self-discipline, for example, provides the freedom to excel and grow into a real productive and fruitful human being within one’s community.  In short, freedom demands that we submit to certain social boundaries and personal limitations in order to thrive as individuals and as a community.

Thus, freedom is not only a matter of being free from something but also being free to… to do and to be, to become.  The environment, the community’s setting and context, society and culture must make it conducive for a free people to thrive and prosper.  And that means a people’s willingness, as individuals and as a community, to admit personal limitations and accept a certain amount of social regulation, and to submit to the rules of the game, in order to assure that everyone has the potential to succeed.