Freedom (1)

We are free when no one can force us to do things that we don’t want to do. We are free when we can choose how to live without any person or group interfering to prevent us from doing things that we want to do, or forcing us to act against our will.

There is a lot of talk these days about freedom, but freedom is a funny thing. If we cling to it too tightly, we can lose it. And if we give up some freedom, we can often gain more.

A person living alone in a cave in the bush is totally free. He can choose when to go to sleep and when to get up. He can decide when to go hunting for food and how much of what he finds to eat or store. He can choose to wear whatever he likes.

However, he is not as free as he feels. If a snowstorm comes unexpectedly, he might not be able to go hunting for food on the day he had planned to. If a drought occurs, his water supply might run out, and he might have to travel several miles each day to get the water he needs.

But in a way, his freedom is limited. He is not free to go to the movies, because he has no money. He can’t choose to eat a restaurant meal, because he cannot afford it. So although he is totally free, his freedoms are quite limited.

Society
The person living alone in the bush is almost totally free to live in a very limited way. However, a person who chooses to live in a society/community quickly finds that their freedom comes up against other people exercising their freedom. When two people want to do the same thing at the same place at the same time, there is often a clash of freedoms. People living in society find their freedom is limited by other people taking free actions that disrupt their planned activities.

• If someone chooses to park their car across my driveway, I cannot drive my car out to buy a cup of coffee when I choose to.

• If I go to a coffee shop at a time when it is very busy, I might not be able to sit at my favourite table, because someone has got their first and is seated at it drinking coffee.

• I might decide to study at a prestigious university, but if I am rejected because my school grades were not good enough, I am not free to follow my chosen path.

These are just a couple of simple examples that show that we do not have absolute freedom. When we participate in society, we cannot always act according to our will. When we take a free action according to our own will, we will often end up limiting the freedom of other people. People living in society have developed various practices of handling these conflicts of freedom.

• Patience, courtesy

• First come, first served; wait your turn.

• Respect for the property of other people.

• Laws or regulations that deal with conflicts of interest.

These are just a few practices that commonly affect our freedom. If you ponder your freedom, you will think of others that limit your freedom. The following are examples of these practices enabling people to live freely without disrupting the lives of other people.

• If I go to buy a cup of coffee at the same time as a number of other people, a queue will usually form and people will get their coffees in the order that they arrived. This is a peaceful and acceptable way to resolve the clash of freedoms.

• If I am about to go out the door of the building on a stormy die, but pause to let a person who is outside come in first, I am showing patience. I was free to go first, but I decided not to exercise my freedom because I took into consideration the needs of the other person who was wet and cold.

• I can go to bed at night when I choose without having to worry that I might find that another person has chosen to sleep in my bed because most people in society recognise my bed as my property. And I recognise that the beds of other people belong to them. I don’t consider myself free to get into the bed of someone else if it is more convenient.

• If I choose to drive across a one-lane bridge from south to north at the same time as another person has chosen to drive over the bridge from north to south, disaster will result if we both claim the freedom to do our will. One person will have to exercise patience and let the other go first. In many situations like this, local customs or laws will dictate which person should give way. We accept this limitation on our freedom because it makes driving safer.

• Laws forbidding theft and assault give us the freedom to participate in a society without fear that other people will feel free to steal our property or to assault us when we obstruct their free actions.

Once a person agrees to participate in society, the need to accommodate the actions of other people places limits on our freedom. Hopefully, most of these limits will be voluntary, but a few will be enforced by the community or the government.