When you say I'm more free than _____. What is this based on? When you say America is a FREE Country . . . .what exactly does that mean? I am curious as to how we measure Freedom in this country . . in this world. Just Random Research seeking enlightenment. Rocket River
Ones ability to do things without restriction and without infringing on another's natural rights to life, liberty and property.
You can live where you want, do what you want and say what you want for the most part as long as you are not infringe on other people's rights.
No, but when you focus more on tangible goals and realistic circumstances, you won't start self-detonating or hanging chicks off construction cranes mid-way through the '70s.
Freedom, in general terms is the ability to do what we want without restriction. But the freedom that is desirable is the freedom to do what is right. If you're walking near a cliff, you don't complain that there is a fence to keep you from falling, you only complain when there is a fence preventing you from going where you need to be. Thus freedom without moral guidance, or virtue, is not desirable to anyone. We understand this instinctively, as we put many limitations on the freedom of our children to protect them against the consequences of their ignorance and lack of discipline. We remove these limitations as the children show that they are becoming wiser and more responsible. Our forefathers fought to live free of inappropriate meddling,and this was good and proper. But our forefathers were also uniquely virtuous and moral people, who restrained themselves without need of government intervention. Today, we live in a world where all moral standards and spiritual ideals are being abandoned as fast as possible. In this kind of world, freedom is really a synonym with freedom to do anything we want, and freedom from the negative consequences that result from our behavior. This kind of freedom is folly. When freedom is not informed by virtue, it becomes chaos. In all things, there is one ideal way forward, the most direct and efficient, and an infinity of lesser paths. Some of these paths lead to the same place, but take longer. Some of these paths may be dangerous, while others will never reach the destination. Themore bad paths we eliminate, the easier it becomes to follow the ideal path and reach our destination. We must restrain total freedom and preserve mainly the freedom to do good, if we are to live in a progressive and orderly society.
True, it depends on personal situation and circumstances. In what's known as free societies , people are free literally after they pay their income and other imposed taxes. Seems like a phenomena , the highest taxed nations ,the more free they are ..
I measure it by the number of public beheadings. Judging that way, the magic kingdom of Saudi Arabia is clearly the most free.
This is a long-winded way of saying, "Freedom means doing whatever you want to do, so long as I approve of it."
I actually measure it based on how much I have left to lose because there isn't anything that means anything if it's not free.
The ability to do what I want when I want as long as it doesn't infringe on someone else's ability to do what they want when they want.
