Freedom first

A country is jointly created by its citizens through a social contract to defend their life and liberty. Freedom actually comes before everything else even if we don’t often think about it. It is vital to our existence.

As Pearl S. Buck said, “Men would rather be starving and free than fed in bonds”. Even the poorest villager prefers to roam free and enjoy the sunset, than stay in solitary confinement for the whole of his life inside a large house with golden cutlery, lavish food, and a silken bed, but without windows, books, companionship, or awareness of the outside world.

What is freedom?

Freedom can mean many things:

1. Liberty of the person, and protection against abuse of power, e.g. protection from slavery, detention, or oppression. This means absence of arbitrary exercise of authority. This is closely related to
2. Being unhampered. This refers to our power to engage in actions without control or interference. Finally…
3. Self-determination or the power of self-determination. This refers to the capacity to exercise choice through free will. This includes access to power, or the “right to be a participant in government” (Hannah Arendt).

Together, these tell us something about ‘freedom’. But taken out of context, any of these meanings can become problematic. Freedom must therefore be closely integrated with justice or accountability.

Unconstrained action can quickly degenerate into license. No one is free to steal or pollute or kill, or to throw their garbage on the streets.

Two points to note:

1. Political independence of nations has little to do with freedom. When people talk of India’s ‘freedom’ movement, or a book is entitled, Freedom at Midnight, the issue refers to national independence, not freedom. Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, and even Nehru’s India (no matter how democratic) were independent but they were not free.
2. Freedom is not an exemption from unpleasant or onerous conditions. Being ‘free’ from poverty has little to do with freedom. Slaves or prisoners are not exactly poor, being given food and shelter; but they are not free.