What do you hear when people say freedom?
 

There is often a difference between what people think they're saying and what they are saying.
ex: UG thinks he's saying freedom for everyone. I'd say what people generally hear is submit to my freedom. That is why he and Radar and Dana collide, they all want a version of freedom to reign, but their definitions are incompatible.

My current definition shifts with what I see. It may not look that different from Radar's except that I do think that, despite its moral hazards, a social saftey net is in order. I do believe in the freedom to fail, which has become unpopular in governmental circles, meaning I'd rather see Wagoner on welfare than running GM. I believe the Supreme Court got it right, we have a individual right to self defense. I believe in a lot of stuff, but what do you hear?

Depending upon the speaker and context, unfortunately I usually hear "license." You know doing what you want without concern for the consequences.



Sometimes I hear Richie Havens singing "Freedom" this one time I saw him in New Hampshire decades ago. He sang himself into a trance, fell off his stool, and continued singing and playing his guitar: Freeeeedommm Freeeeedommm Freedommmm.

He wasn't talking about license, he was singing about freedom. He was invoking freedom in all its manifestations.

Wait, he wasn't singing about smoking dope?

FRENCH FRIES

When MLK says it, I get a tear in me e'e.

When Team America says it, I giggle.

When Toby Keith says it, I want to punch him in the mouth.

smart
yummy
Well said.

Free will is a rather new discovery in the history of the human race. I guess it's those thoughts, choices, and actions you take independently, without depending on the god(s), society/tribes, or other people in your life.

:notworthy:

A lot of people think 'freedom' means free to do what you like unless you violate MY moral code. Then that is just 'wrong' and should be stopped immediately.

Pedophiles are always doing that, thinking they are free to rape children.

My point being, where does one draw the line?

Ah, there's the rub.

Which line? I see a lot of them. In fact, I just see one gray blob.

Well then, quit spying on me. :p

I think of it in the way that UT thinks of it...But there is also all the little subatomic particles around, and outside forces that interfere with free will.

Do I really have free will with gravity holding me down? How free is freedom? I am more and more convinced that freedom exists only in varying degrees, if at all. It might have been manufactured to make us feel better. Great in theory..the practice..Not so much.

When I hear someone say freedom I wonder what's really on their mind. Usually, if I listen long enough, they get around to what their bitch really is.

Mel Gibson.