What does it mean to be -free- ?

[ananda]

What is a free society?

- Adlai Stevenson said: "A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular."

I love it! What a concept!

.............

And what does it mean to be a free human being?

- Leon Blum opined: "The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought."

So true... and very profound.

I have to stop and think about what it means to go to the end of a thought.

For example, where would we be if Bush or any neocon, really, had gone to the end of the thought about what democracy means?

Sue

[skylarmae]

1. Ah, the question that caused the War in Heaven pops up

once again.....

[CityZen-X]

7. Sitting In A Tub

butt naked in the middle of my back yard,smoking a Humboldt Deluxe, singing at the top of my lungs, "Tomorrow Never Knows," then showering and going to my job at a nuclear power plant!

[cestpaspossible]

2. Freedom means taking responsibility for yourself and your actions.

Thoreau in his cell was more free than any of his jailers.

[CindyDale]

3. Here is wisdom. Thanks for posting. n/t

[wildflower]

4. Nominated. We can look at this concept in many ways.

In the late 60s, the concept of freedom seemed to be largely the province of the liberals; now it has been co-opted by the right.

What is meant by the right when they speak of freedom? One quote comes to mind:

(On looting in Iraq, 2003): "Free people are free to do things in a free society." (approximating the quote here)

And there is the notion of freedom somehow being antithetical to terrorism.

Then there's the "spread of freedom." But spreading it by force seems to contradict the concept of freedom.

For the left, concepts include:

Free speech
Freedom to dissent
Freedom of religion
Freedom to be who you are

I'll be interested to see further responses on this.

-wildflower

[CindyDale]

5. I have a funny story about defining "liberty"

Back in the 70s my friend and I were in Memphis and ran into someone we knew. He wanted to show us a place called Marion, Arkansas, across the river, for some reason. I guess he thought it was quaint, which it was.

We went with him, and he showed us the court house with the inscription "Obedience to the law is liberty," or something like that. None of us could figure out what that meant.

That night, we went out to a place and were talking about the inscription. This one guy looked at me as though I were simple indeed and explained, "If you don't obey the law, you go to jail, and you don't have liberty. If you do obey the law, you are free, and you have liberty."

I guess that's probably what the inscription did mean, but it went right over our heads. :-)

[ananda]

6. lol

I like the one that essentially means that freedom is, uh, free. Sounds like it could be a Bushism.

Seriously, it's true that some laws are better honored in the breach than the observance (as Hamlet put it). Thoreau in his cell was indeed more free than most people.

Civil disobedience forever!

Sue

[Chico Man]

8. Bush's view of freedom is "born again"

Freedom, liberty, etc. are all code words for finding Jesus.