What does 'freedom' mean to you?

[careyprice31]

I would like to ask revlefters

In your mind and thoughts, how would you define 'freedom'?

Kind of a bit of an essay question (and all my friends tell me Im famous for asking essay questions lol) but it is a important thing to think about.

For me the thing that comes to my mind is the freedom to be yourself and be who you are without persecution.

So what do you think it means, to you?

[Oneironaut]

Freedom is the shared right of all members operating in society to pursue collective interests in light of individual desires. Freedom entails the right to pursue an enriched life that allows society to realize its capabilities. Freedom only goes as far as that it falls in the hands of the majority. Hence, no individual has the explicit right or "freedom" to deprive a society's pursuit of collective interest.

[Holden Caulfield]

"For me the thing that comes to my mind is the freedom to be yourself and be who you are without persecution."



what about paedophiles, god squaders and fascists and the like?

[Colonello Buendia]

freedom is what we don't have at the moment and what red plague said

[Holden Caulfield]

liberty, equality, fraternity,

[Jhé]

freedom is a when a particle has achieved a state of absolute uncertianty.

it can have any mass. be any where. travel at any speed.


freedom is also the total binding off love upon everything and anyone to the infinite maximum love can absorb anything. away from adverts. away from london. when the universe has achieved the infinte state of love, then we will be free, and freedom has been established.

[darkened day 92]

Freedom is when you are respected in your society for being yourself. freedom is when people trust you to be independant spirtually, think your own mind have your own heros. freedom is when government is not brainwashing u with propaganda. freedom is of love and hate

[Demogorgon]

The ability to do absolutely anything I want regardless of restriction. (If I want to float off the ground then gravity is affecting my freedom to do so).

Hence it can be a bit of a useless thing to talk about believing in total freedom and all that.

[darkened day 92]

"The ability to do absolutely anything I want regardless of restriction." there is a big problem in this when sometimes your freedom may interfere with someone else's living. laizze faire economy has freedom to do watever but freedom has to have restrictions that limits you not to take over some one else's freedom. You should have specified freedom of spirituality and talk and expression but absoloute freedom of action limits other's freedoms

[Red_or_Dead]

"The ability to do absolutely anything I want regardless of restriction." there is a big problem in this when sometimes your freedom may interfere with someone else's living. laizze faire economy has freedom to do watever but freedom has to have restrictions that limits you not to take over some one else's freedom. You should have specified freedom of spirituality and talk and expression but absoloute freedom of action limits other's freedoms


Freedom to do anything, that doesnt interfere with the freedom of others, and vice versa?

[Demogorgon]

"The ability to do absolutely anything I want regardless of restriction." there is a big problem in this when sometimes your freedom may interfere with someone else's living. laizze faire economy has freedom to do watever but freedom has to have restrictions that limits you not to take over some one else's freedom. You should have specified freedom of spirituality and talk and expression but absoloute freedom of action limits other's freedoms

That wasn't my point. My point was that talking about freedom is a bit silly. The fact, for example, that I can not beat up people just for annoying me in some way, detracts from my freedom in that it limits me from doing what I might want to do BUT it is entirely legitimate that I do not have the freedom to beat people up.

A just society is going to limit people's freedom so that they can not do horrible things to other people. It is still limiting freedom, but entirely rightly

[Dystisis]

To be able to do as you wish as long as it doesn't step on anyone elses ability to do as they wish.

Which is... well. Considering everything is connected in a way, almost physically impossible. Therefore I consider freedom to be a pretty meaningless word.

[Dr Mindbender]

.............



1.the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.

2.exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.

3.the power to determine action without restraint.

4.political or national independence.

5.personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom.

6.exemption from the presence of anything specified (usually fol. by from): freedom from fear.

7.the absence of or release from ties, obligations, etc.

8.ease or facility of movement or action: to enjoy the freedom of living in the country.

9.frankness of manner or speech.

10.general exemption or immunity: freedom from taxation.

11.the absence of ceremony or reserve.

12.a liberty taken.

13.a particular immunity or privilege enjoyed, as by a city or corporation: freedom to levy taxes.

14.civil liberty, as opposed to subjection to an arbitrary or despotic government.

15.the right to enjoy all the privileges or special rights of citizenship, membership, etc., in a community or the like.

16.the right to frequent, enjoy, or use at will: to have the freedom of a friend's library.

17.Philosophy. the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination. Compare necessity (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=necessity)

[Dr Mindbender]

this has got me thinking. Clearly, the capitalistic definition of freedom differs from ours. Are other words defined therefore by political agendas?

[syndicat]

Freedom isn't silly. The opposite of freedom is oppression. When we say that we favor the "liberation of the working class and other oppressed groups", that implies there are structures of oppression that trample the freedom of the working class, the oppressed. To achieve liberation is to achieve freedom where it didn't exist before. The relevant way to understand freedom, then, is not "doing whatever you want" but having control over your own life, self-management of the decisions that affect you. Since most decisions that affect you affect others, that requires authentic democracy, that is, collective self-management. If freedom is "silly" then the way that capitalism tramples on the freedom of the working class, and of the oppressed generally, wouldn't be one of the arguments, motivations, for eliminating capitalism.

Although many decisions are genuinely collective in terms of who they affect, and should be made collectively, this is not true of all decisions. Each person is a unique person, and has things that affect them only or that pertain to them only, and in that sense each person has a need for self-management over one's own life.

It's true of course that the freedom of one can conflict with the freedom of someone else. The freedom of capitalists to do what they want with their property conflicts with the freedom of workers to control how their working abilities are used. But structures of oppression trample in various ways on the ability of people to control their lives. So the struggles against the various forms oppression are freedom struggles. The appropriate conclusion, when we recognize how freedom of one can conflict with freedom of someone else, is not to say "freedom is silly" but to show what sort of freedom it is that one advocates. That's where the concept of self-management comes in.

[Red_or_Dead]

this has got me thinking. Clearly, the capitalistic definition of freedom differs from ours. Are other words defined therefore by political agendas?


Democracy. Terrorism. Heroism. Practicly anything, really. The thing is, imo, that we are trying (in this case with freedom) to clearly define them, while patriots, cappies and the like are very subjective on the matter (heroes are only those who fight for us, all enemies are terrorists, ect.).

Also, the capitalist definition of freedom usualy only implies to economic freedom, or freedom for the corporations, while ignoring the freedom of the rest.

[Holden Caulfield]

does RoD realise his name is a designer label? whatever,
Democracy is one thing the capitalists have changed meaning of, it is the right for the people to rule not the right for the people to chose to rule them

[Red_or_Dead]

does RoD realise his name is a designer label? whatever,
Democracy is one thing the capitalists have changed meaning of, it is the right for the people to rule not the right for the people to chose to rule them

I do now, I googled it... And almost got a heart attack. Im not changing it, tho.

I Agree on the 2nd part.

[gilhyle]

Freedom - a word for nothing left to loose

[Dyslexia! Well I Never!]

Freedom is the ability do enact your desires without external restraint.

Liberty on the other hand is the ability to enact your desires constrained by the single rule that in doing so you cannot restrict anyone elses's ability to do the same.

[darkened day 92]

Freedom - a word for nothing left to loose
like the janis joplin song "Me and bobby McGee" i think no human can ever reach a state of nothing left to loose. Does this mean that freedom doesn't exisist. nothing left to loose is when ur dead cause even if your clincly dead you still have something that is left loose:)

[Bandito]

like the janis joplin song "Me and bobby McGee" i think no human can ever reach a state of nothing left to loose. Does this mean that freedom doesn't exisist. nothing left to loose is when ur dead cause even if your clincly dead you still have something that is left loose:)
But revolutionaries still give their "precious" lives for the cause....
Fools?
NO.

[darkened day 92]

But revolutionaries still give their "precious" lives for the cause....
Fools?
NO.
Well they are fighting for everyone else's freedom and thus loosing their freedom but u=in the hearts of many they become as though they are immortal they are not dead they are the beautiful illusion we have made of them. When you are dead fighting for a belif that is freedom and you choose to live and die for it you are enslaving your freedom to give the people you appreciate their freedom.

[gilhyle]

like the janis joplin song "Me and bobby McGee" i think no human can ever reach a state of nothing left to loose. Does this mean that freedom doesn't exisist. nothing left to loose is when ur dead cause even if your clincly dead you still have something that is left loose:)

Thats about right.......

Noone reaches a state of NOTHING left to loose, noone reaches freedom : be glad you never do . Freedom is a bourgeois political ideal behind which lies a pointless life. COmmunists do not fight for freedom, they fight for power, power for their class, power for people to realise their potential, but never freedom, never the absence of the ties that bind us to the world and make life worth living and make people think life worth sacrificing.

[Kris Kristofferson song, Janis Joplin Cover ;)]

[Maybe-not]

Freedom, To me, is the right to be your own individual. That simple.

[canopykid]

To me freedom is death. Without thinking about what freedom actually is, we are slaves to life. But, which trying so hard to gain freedom, we are slaves to freedom. Death is the one point where nothing dictates over you.

[Dystisis]

To me freedom is death. Without thinking about what freedom actually is, we are slaves to life. But, which trying so hard to gain freedom, we are slaves to freedom. Death is the one point where nothing dictates over you.
Ok, but here comes the real bummer: When you're dead you no longer exist.

[Dyslexia! Well I Never!]

To me freedom is death. Without thinking about what freedom actually is, we are slaves to life. But, which trying so hard to gain freedom, we are slaves to freedom. Death is the one point where nothing dictates over you.

yes very true but then again.

If life sucks so much go kill yourself. The world's a gloomy enough place without feeling of futility and idleness.

[piet11111]

freedom is the ability to do what you want.
needless to say absolute freedom is impossible because others need to be protected from harm.

[acr0ma]

Freedom is how the 2 guys from the movie "Easy Rider" live.