Freedom: Sometimes less is more

Here in America, we celebrate individual freedom. “I know my rights!” is an almost mundanely common catch phrase we hear in TV shows and movies. We know our individual rights, and we're surrounded by a culture that encourages celebration of (or even flagrant misuse of) individual liberties. We have the right to say whatever we want, buy whatever we want, eat whatever we want, and to some extent do whatever we feel like doing. But freedom is a double edged sword. For example, because of freedom of speech, corporations are allowed to market their products by lying (or making deliberately deceitful claims) about their products or about their competitors’ products. This limits individuals’ freedom to make informed choices about the products they buy. Having the freedom to buy liquor or other mind-altering substances opens up opportunities for substance abuse and addiction, which can be severely freedom-limiting for those who experience it. If a psychopath had the freedom to fire a loaded weapon into a crowd of innocent bystanders (and in many ways we do have this freedom in America), some of those bystanders would be severely limited in their basic freedom to live. For any given freedom, there is always another freedom (or possibly more than one) that is at odds with it. Sometimes it will be someone else’s freedom pitted against yours, but sometimes it will be another one of your own freedoms. Freedom is not a the-more-the-merrier type of thing. It’s always a tradeoff.

Consider this. Often times, restricting freedoms in one way opens up the way for other more meaningful kinds of freedoms. Sometimes giving up freedom is the only way to really be free at all. After all, gravity severely limits our ability to soar through the air, but without gravity, walking and running would be impossible. In fact, without gravity, the entire universe as we know it couldn’t exist. Without conforming to the rules of pitch, rhythm and consonance, Schumann would never have been able to write his heart-wrenching piano compositions. Without adhering to the rules of a government, we could never have a society, and without subscribing to a creed or moral code, life would just be survival. It’s the rules and the restrictions we pick that allow us to choose better, more meaningful freedoms. Could this be what King David meant when he wrote “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”(Psalms 119:32)?