I Choose Freedom

“No man who is truly free can be imprisoned,” says my sixteen-year-old daughter. I think I would have to agree with her. Freedom is not something that is granted to you by laws, governments or people. Freedom is a quality of mind that can be achieved by anyone capable of self-determination. Hence, a man can be free in any circumstance if he understands the nature of freedom.

When I was a child I understood freedom as the absence of physical restraint. Young people today clamor for 'freedom' by this definition. They want no restraint and call this freedom. But an elementary understanding of life will teach them that without restraint there can be no freedom. Imagine taking away basic traffic rules and restraints. The road would not be a safe place. There would be little freedom to travel because the danger would be too great. Freedom is not the absence of restrictions.

So, what is freedom? I like the example of the priest in Dumas' “The Count of Monte Cristo”. In this book, Edmond Dantes and the abbe Faria are imprisoned at the same time. Dantes, bitter and jealous because of his false imprisonment, follows a slow path to insanity wondering why life is treating him so badly. The abbe on the other hand, though also wrongly imprisoned, has used every moment of his time and every possible resource at his disposal to create a life and a legacy. Dantes, while tunneling to escape, mistakenly reaches the abbe's cell and they meet and become friends. The abbe begins to teach Dantes and through their discussions the abbe uncovers the evidence of the plot laid to falsly accuse Dantes so that he could be sent to prison.

The abbe also shows Dantes the book he has painstakingly written on his shirt. Dantes is surprised at the abbe's amazing ingenuity, and is also ashamed at his own lack of it. Both men were free to use their minds to whatever end they chose. One man chose the path of self-pity and regret. The other chose the path of freedom and used his mind and resources to his and Dantes' advantage. Ultimately, Dantes' escape and future life were made possible by the abbe's use of his freedom.

Freedom then, has less to do with circumstance than with thought. So what are people referring to when on the Fourth of July, Veteran's Day, or Memorial Day, they talk about the “freedoms we enjoy in this country”?

In January 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt made his “Four Freedoms” speech. The first two, freedom of speech and freedom of religion are spoken of in the Constitution. These are essentially freedoms of thought, or freedoms of the mind. This is the kind of freedom which if a man have he cannot be imprisoned. His freedom is not in his circumstances. But the next two he mentions are freedom from want and freedom from fear. He claims that all men are 'entitled' to these freedoms and that it is the job of governments to provide them.

There have always been bullies. Tyranny and oppression have never been absent from governments. These evils must be dealt with in any way that we can. But freedom from oppression by governments seems to elude even the most vigilant of people because it is too often obscured by those who preach 'freedom from want' or 'freedom from fear'. People justify oppression to meet these ends and few today would argue the point. Governments have no more rights than people have. If it is wrong for one man to steal from his neighbor to feed his friend, it is wrong for governments to do so. Thus, freedom from oppression should be our objective, not freedom from want. Trying to supply the wants of everyone will only lead to the oppression of everyone.

Freedoms of the mind cannot be granted to me by anyone. They are a choice I make. No one can cause me to be free from fear or ignorance. No one can force me to use my intellectual freedom to think. But governments can force people to pay so that everyone can be free from want. So we oppress one man to free another. Governments are only people. Me and you, in fact. Do we have the right to force people to be free? No, it is an oxymoron. It cannot be done. We are not free when we are oppressed in this manner, and we do not and cannot force anyone to be truly free either. Freedom of mind is a choice and all other conditions imposed upon us by force are not freedom and do not deserve to be called by that name.