From: Steve Peterson (speterson@fast.net)
Date: Sun Oct 06 2002 - 02:15:27 BST
In the wake of 9/11/01, the word freedom was used extensively. Americans
were told by their leaders and Americans told one another that the terrorist
attack was ³an attack on Freedom.² George W Bush answered those who
wondered why anyone would want to do such a thing with the statement, ³They
canıt stand freedom.² My wife who grew up in Colombia was completely vexed
by such statements. She couldnıt understand how attacking freedom could
possibly mean anything and have anything to do with what happened.
I had a hard time explaining it to her. My first thought was that freedom
doesnıt really mean anything specific. It is more of a reference to our
sacred story of the American Revolution that defines the American religion.
Freedom means George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the stars and stripes,
and the Declaration of Independence though not literally freedom from the
tyranny of kings. (Freedom from tyranny is an interesting ideal for the
most powerful country in the world.) Saying that the 9/11 attack was an
attack on freedom is just another way of saying it is an attack on America
but with religious undertones.
My wife doesnıt thing that we are not such a free country, we have rules and
regulations for everything here. There are lots of countries where there is
more personal freedom than in the U.S. I donıt think I would want to live
in those countries, though, because I think I would be less free in some
other sense.
Personal freedom in the Libertarian sense is important to Americans along
with the ³your freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose² adage, but I
donıt think our ideal of freedom is merely about being able to do whatever
you want. The child that tries the ³itıs a free country² argument when her
parents order her to make her bed doesnıt really understand the ideal of
freedom. Some restrictions on personal freedom exist to increase freedom in
another sense. So my question is, how would you characterize this ideal of
freedom? The more cynical among us roll their eyes at the sound of the word
because they think that it doesnıt mean anything or that we are hypocrites,
but I think there is something to it, though I donıt know how to describe
it. I would say that itıs a freedom to be all you can be sort of thing, but
Iım hoping that someone can clarify it for me. The discussion of morals
suggests that a morality might be built on the idea of freedom.
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 10:37:53 GMT