TOW: Freedom

I've heard the word free a lot lately.  An evangelist in chinatown was saying, "I know God!  I'm free!  Free from religion!  Free from capitalism!"

A homeless man as I passed him (and Syrian refugee protest today), said, "More things need to be free!  Like gum.  And love! THEN WE'LL BE HAPPY."

I'm not sure what love and gum have to do with each other, but perhaps one day I'll learn the secret. 

As I walked by both men, (perhaps the former more than the latter) there seemed to be a slightly misplaced understanding of freedom.  One that I'm quite partial to some days, but overall I think is flawed.

Freedom is not a concept of being loosened from responsibilities, needs, difficult people, etc.  Freedom is not being freed from something so that we can do as we please.  Freedom is the freedom to be.  To act.

And freedom is not a concept that lives by itself, within us as an ultimate mover.  It must be cultivated by other virtues to exist in us.  And a society built of responsible people, is one that can choose religion, that can have an economic system and be happy (indulging, to an extent) and still be free.

There is no freedom without responsibility.  Freedom without a place in the world is not freedom at all.  It's aimlessness.  Neither human morality nor human society at large benefit from aimless individuals.  These people will never find love.  Nor gum.