What the Hell Is Wrong with Freedom?

That’s what it’s all about

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what’s it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things… They’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ’em.”

— Jack Nicholson as George, Easy Rider

What exactly is freedom? And what makes it so precious, and so precarious?

If you look up its meaning (or at least its denotation) in a dictionary, the first definitions you’ll find are typically something along the lines of “exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.” or “the power to determine action without restraint.”

In fact, this is its very earliest recorded meaning, going all the way back to the Sumerians and the invention of writing. To them, freedom essentially meant “not a slave.”

Slavery in the U.S. was formally abolished almost exactly 156 years ago. And although its evils continue to plague our society and we still have a long way to go to achieve true equality, everyone today is technically equally free under the law.

So that being the case, what does the concept of freedom mean in contemporary America, in a time of racial unrest, of political violence, and of ever-worsening pandemic fatigue?

And what does it mean more broadly for everyday people living everyday lives in a country that proudly brands itself as the “land of the free”?

Let’s start with two battles still not quite won.

Not everyone likes, or agrees with homosexuality. If they did, the Westboro Baptist Church would be out of a job. Likewise, not everyone uses — much less condones — pot. (As attested by fifty-plus years of locking up those who smoke it.)

But that’s the whole point. Freedom doesn’t mean freedom from offense, or freedom from discomfort. It means freedom from arbitrary constraint upon one’s actions.

To tell two loving, consenting adults that they’re not allowed to physically engage with one another, or to enter into whatsoever kind of union they choose, can in no rational way be considered as being on the side of liberty.

To tell a responsible adult that she’s forbidden to partake in the use of a natural plant that has been used for thousands of years by cultures around the planet, that has shown incredible promise for alleviating a wide range of illnesses, that has been proven to be far less harmful than either cigarettes or alcohol (both of which rank as more damaging to personal and societal health than even LSD or Ecstasy), and which contains an active chemical that is found naturally in breast milk, is the height of absurdity.

Why are we as a society of the 21st century still trying (and failing) to legislate morality? Why are we still interfering with people’s private pursuit of life, liberty and happiness by imprisoning them for victimless crimes?

As philosopher John Stuart Mill pointed out over 150 years ago:

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to obtain it.”

Whether it’s the illegality of B.A.S.E. jumping, of public nudity, or even taking your own life when terminally ill, we as a country have a lot of work ahead of us if we hope to ever be a truly free society in anything but name.

Freedom can be frightening, it can be messy, it can be impious and distasteful, but it can also be empowering, uplifting, and exhilarating — all of which makes it so precious and essential. It’s why people throughout the ages have found it worth fighting, sometimes even dying for — something those on both the Left and the Right would do well to remember.

Freedom is the right to build a mosque where you wish as well as the right to burn a Qur’an if you so choose.

It’s the right to ingest, inject, or inhale whatever intoxicant brings you pleasure or excitement; the right to give or receive any bodily appendage into any orifice of any other consenting adult of any gender. (Or conversely, the right to abstain from any and all of the above.)

Freedom means the right to think for yourself and the right to question everything. Yet if you prefer, it’s the right to let others think for you and to blindly accept all that you’re told. Whatever. You do you.

It’s the right to do business in a free marketplace, to bring bold visions to life without undue interference and red tape. Yet it’s equally the right to band together to demand better pay and conditions, and to do so without fear of reprisal. It’s the right to demand a clean and healthy environment, and a livable planet.

It’s the right to bear arms yet the responsibility never to seek out “second amendment solutions” against those whom you disagree with. Otherwise it’s self-defeating to all the liberty it’s meant to uphold.

Freedom is the right to wear a Guy Fawkes mask or a MAGA hat with equal enthusiasm. (As hard as that might be to digest.)

Freedom is all of the above or it’s nothing at all — just random scribbles in clay whose meaning has been long forgotten.

America is a land of great promise, built upon a noble ideal — the idea that the people themselves have the right to determine their own destiny — not God, not a divinely appointed king, not some elite minority of the rich and the powerful — everyone.

The future belongs to all of us and we hold it squarely within our collective hands. What kind of a future do we want for ourselves, our children, and the planet itself (including all the non-human life forms who share it)?

As George from Easy Rider lamented, “You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.” To which Billy replied, “Man, everybody got chicken, that’s what happened.”

All change starts with the individual. Let’s be bold. Let’s be brave. Let’s be free!

Colby Hess is a freelance writer and photographer from Seattle, and author of the freethinker children’s book The Stranger of Wigglesworth.

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Adapted from an article originally published as:

“If We’re The Land Of The Free Then Why Are We So Restricted?” on November 29, 2012 by Addicting Info*

(*Note: This site is now defunct. The original is still viewable via the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive here)