On Freedom
Don't let the virtue signalers and the language cancellers ruin you. Continue on the road to freedom, the 4 freedoms.
I’ve been dismayed recently by how “language” is being attacked. I finally got the energy to write about this after reading multiple articles calling out people who “cry freedom” as just cry babies and misusing the word. Even declaring that we should stop using the word “freedom”, saying essentially, “they don’t know what freedom is”. Wrong.
I am against of all forms of “language shaming” and cancelation. What’s really, truly wrong is the USE of said language, the context of it. Not the words themselves.
So what is freedom? Let’s start there.
I don’t think we should define it completely, absolutely, for everyone. There is a subjective element. But I’d like to turn to what freedom is, in operation. It’s internal constituent parts.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Richard Stallman. As somewhat of a content liberty geek, I’ve followed his career and lectures for years. He’s the guy who created the open-source GNU and one who has fought for an free (not open) world of code - so anyone can access behind the curtain and change it, fix it, reuse it.
Stallman has 4 Freedoms.
A program is “free software” if the program’s users have the four essential freedoms:
The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Richard Stallman, “Four Freedoms”
Either you control the program (you have the 4 essential freedoms) or those who control the program control you.
Watch his short talk and while watching, change “program” to “people”.
Now, let’s just look at this from a “human” aspect and change the program into a person. We’ll come up with 4 parts, 4 aspects of human freedom.
A person is “free” if they have these four essential freedoms:
The freedom to live as you wish, for any purpose.
The freedom to change so you become who you are and wish. Access to all information is a precondition for this.
The freedom to share information, thoughts, feelings so you can change society through dialogue.
The freedom to speak out and distribute your message to humanity. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to all information is a precondition for this.
And that is essentially what freedom is …
The freedom to live as you wish
The freedom to change, become.
The freedom to speak, share, voice.
The freedom to information, education.
Freedom is really about restricting or expanding a person’s possibilities. As Valery discussed. That’s the litmus test of liberty - does the world you live in allow you to pursue the possibilities inherent in all life? Or does it restrict your being, becoming?
“ The only way to deal with an unfree world, is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is a rebellion.” - Albert Camus
I would add as Roosevelt did - The freedom from fear. “which translated in the world terms means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor anywhere in the world.” Why have’’t we done this in the intervening 70 years?