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August 2, 2007 by Alpha.
We Americans, as a civilized breed, are tremendously proud of our common values.
In the land of values, Freedom is King.
In the United States, Freedom is generally interpreted in one of two ways. It is most frequently expressed as either: a condition lacking external constraint, the so-called “negative freedom” of libertarians and many conservatives; or a “positive freedom,” better described as a position in space, from which a multitude of options descend, which image is preferred by most liberal and progressive thinkers.
The obvious fault of the negative freedom theory is that it overlooks situations in which the unconstrained freedom of one person or group actually constrains the freedom of another. On the other hand, the positive freedom theory occasionally constrains everyone’s freedom to offer toothless protections to nearly nonexistent minorities.
These models are both appealing in their own ways, and find markets in many minds, but I don’t feel that either is satisfactory. It is as though we have theories describing trees and forests, but are saying nothing about how it all ought to relate.
Allow me to sketch a brief synthesis, a “Third Way” to discuss the implications of freedom in America.
Freedom is not a commodity. It cannot be bought, sold, or traded for. Freedom for each individual impacts the freedom of all, and to this end, those who are least free among us demand the greatest efforts to remedy that imbalance. There will come occasions where a government must balance the negative freedom of the many against the positive freedom of the few, and vice versa.
The greatest goal of the pursuit of freedom, however, must be the pursuit of options. We need real options, without barriers. We need options that you don’t need a lawyer to understand. We need to bring freedom to people, rather than obfuscating it, because a freedom I can see but cannot achieve is not mine.
A single mother making $1500 a month must be able to choose to change her life. Students in our public schools must have access to the programs that they want, from music to art to metal shop to computing.
Every American must be able to be who they want to, today and tomorrow.
That’s freedom.
What does freedom mean to you? Tell us in the comments!
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