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Freedom Freedom is a word that is often used as though its meaning were clear and universally understood. We Americans love our freedom and, we think, everyone else in the world wants it. But just what is this freedom to which we so love and wish to export to the rest of the world. What do we mean by this word and what does it really mean in our everyday lives? Political Freedom We cherish our freedoms of speech, of religion, of the press, to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances – those freedoms granted in the first amendment to our constitution. They have shown their durability and importance in enabling the creation and endurance of our nation. It is to our discredit that we have sometimes been hasty to impose limits on them and, more often, lax in exercising the rights they confer. Every now and again we seem eager to trade some measure of these freedoms for a promise of increased security and even sometimes merely to quiet voices we find offensive. This is the freedom we say others want and that we wish to give them. Personal Freedom as
Contemporary Culture Teaches Contemporary western
culture – as lead by and best exemplified by American culture –
promotes a very different kind of freedom.
We are taught rather clearly by our culture to understand freedom
in terms of personal autonomy. In
other words, for me to be free means for me to be able to do whatever I
want. I do not feel beholden to any set of standards; in fact
I am the only legitimate arbiter of what is right for me. I do not wish to be constrained by the customs of any
community or in fact be situated in any context that "imposes"
expectations on my behavior. In
this version of freedom, personal integrity is reduced to little more than
acting in such a way as to expect personal satisfaction.
To be sure, this description is the most pure form. Most Americans are not at this extreme, but many are close
and most of the rest are moving inexorably in that direction. Actually, there is little
real autonomy in this form of freedom and it is more accurately described
as a form of slavery: slavery to what is fashionable, to the expectations
of peers, to advertising, to the overabundance of choices available to one
who thinks himself beholden to no one.
It is slavish hedonism masquerading as freedom. It is no wonder that
fundamentalists (of every shade) particularly are reacting to this trend
and some quite violently. Can
they be blamed for doing so? After
all, few movements in human history have spread more successfully.
And has any been more antithetical – and therefore more dangerous
– to religion? It is
perhaps a mystery that every religious group is not panicking. Today in America we are
thought of and referred to as consumers far more than as citizens.
To the extent that we subscribe to this particular version of
freedom, we are operating more as consumers and less as citizens.
Good citizenship includes commitment to the common good.
Contrary to the recurrent myth, greed is not a sound basis for
promoting the common good. Unfortunately,
much of the business of government is business, business depends on
consumption, and the vast majority of us are good consumers.
Government then is unlikely to try to reverse this trend and we are
showing no sign of abandoning it. This is the brand of freedom we are actually exporting to the rest of the world, whether accompanied by political freedom or not. To their considerable peril, much of the rest of the world is eating it up. Real Personal Freedom A real person has
ideals, ideals of personal behavior, of behavior toward others, ideals to
a great extent shared with a community.
His standards of behavior are not for the most part
self-determined; they are received from the community (on several levels:
primarily family, but also among them church, local community, and
nation). His life is situated in community and he is not in any
way autonomous. Integrity
consists in adherence to those ideals, fidelity to the community. This often involves acting in direct opposition to
apparent self-interest, i.e., in a selfless manner.
Real personal freedom, then, is the freedom to act in fidelity to
one's ideals, without regard to personal comfort, what others think, what
advertising suggests, and in spite of the myriad other options that may be
much more comfortable, fun, or entertaining.
A really free person is likely to be a good parent, a good child, a
good worker, a good citizen. The most profoundly free person is one who is not only faithful to his ideals, but also has no attachments. An attachment in this usage is any expectation or demand that a person at least tacitly makes on the future – anything that if it happens, would "cause" him to be angry, frustrated, resentful, or to feel cheated. The person with no attachments can love and cherish and experience joy and sorrow (even profound sorrow), but because he is only a steward of all that he loves and possesses, he does not feel cheated if he loses it. He is not attached to anything, so he quite literally has nothing to lose. Undoubtedly, few will ever reach this level of freedom, but for anyone who wants more serenity in life (and who doesn't?), it is a goal to be worked toward. |