Freedom

It is one of the most basic and wonderful concept of humanity but, most of the time, controversial, and contentious topic. The dialogue on freedom has been going on forever, and it will continue forever with the changing dynamics of the society. What it means to be free is to be forever redefined and refined. The concept of freedom is such a basic building block of modern society, it applies to every aspect of our lives. Politics. Economy. Society. Individual.

Politically, the story of freedom goes back about 2500 years, back to the Greeks and the Persian Empires. Herodotus states that the difference between the Greeks and the Persian Empire was Greek citizens had the freedom and Persians were not free citizens and, therefore, no freedom.

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The irony here is that Greek city states were based on slave labor and Persians enjoyed the efficiency of centralized and efficient bureaucratic system. From the beginning, the story of the political freedom was very nuanced. One other interesting observation is that people realizing the need of the rules and the laws to be free, or, at least, feeling free.

In the U.S.A., some of the basic freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution, but freedom from the Constitution is a hot issue right now, especially, the Second Amendment. Rigidly following the Constitution is not the wise way of solving today's problems. This is a discussion of the freedom in the context of mores, customs, rules, and laws.

At the fundamental level, the survival of the fittest at the animal level, people appreciated the rules and laws to have protection from tyranny of many kind. We need clear boundaries in our behavior to be free in our behavior. The question is how and who sets the boundaries, rules, and laws, and how to define freedom without feeling suffocating from rigid rules, and laws.

At the personal level which is the first place to start building a case for a point of view, freedom surely comes with responsibility, accountability, respect for other people, and a lot of hard work. Some freedom comes only with time, for instance, Socrates claiming that with age he felt freedom from sexual temptation. Well, of course, some people seem never to achieve that freedom for whatever reason.

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Most people are like Bill Clinton forgiving himself every morning after the sin of the day before. We are multidimensional, and our freedom takes multidimensional shape. Whatever shape of personal freedom considered, it is very clear that we have to pay for it in discipline, hard work, love, and with a lot of luck from somewhere.