Last week, the news of the dire wolf's de-extinction was everywhere. It didn't take long until calmer voices pointed out that these are not really dire wolves, which weren't even wolves, just gray wolves genetically altered to have what someone believes were some dire wolf traits.
The kind of liberty most people offer is similar. It's not real liberty; it's authoritarianism with a few tweaks of what some politicians believe real liberty might be like. They'll claim to support liberty to get votes- until it threatens government power. This isn't liberty at all, but a watered-down version where government allows you to do some things you already have a right to do, as long as you don't bother government too much.
This mutated authoritarianism with a few liberty genes isn't compatible with your birthright as a human being. It's not compatible with the values America was supposedly founded upon. It doesn't look or feel like liberty because it's not liberty. It doesn't get in the way of government's plans for you; things you wouldn't tolerate if you understood liberty.
Practically everyone is familiar with the military's misuse of the word "liberty", where the word is used to mean its opposite: "limited freedom, with permission". This way, they can ensure no one knows what they are supposed to be fighting for. Their loyalty is to the US Federal Government, not to American liberty.
"Freedom" means doing whatever you want, without regard for right or wrong or the rights of others. This may be why most people prefer to use this word. If supporting government is what you want to do, you'll feel "free" while doing so. It's not as scary- or as powerful- as liberty.
"Liberty" means doing anything you have a right to do; nothing else. No one has a right to violate others. Not as part of a majority, not because of a job, and not by hiring a politician to do it for you. The right to violate others can never exist.
Respecting liberty means you sometimes have to stand aside while people do things you don't like, but which violate no one. Few people have a character strong enough for this.
Just like the dire wolf was a distinct animal, and genetically altered gray wolves aren't dire wolves, liberty is a distinct condition. If it relies on politicians and bureaucrats to agree to it, it's not liberty. It's the opposite.
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I suggest that your definition of "freedom" is closer to libertinism than to liberty. As I see it, a belief in freedom must mean freedom for ALL; therefore, the rights of other people must be respected. I doubt that there is any measurable difference between the two terms.
ReplyDeleteHad a further thought over breakfast, about that definition "doing whatever you want, without regard for right or wrong or the rights of others".
DeleteIt seems to me a pretty accurate description of what government does. The very opposite of freedom/liberty.
That's why I explain my definitions. I know everyone has their own definitions inside their own brains, and the confusion comes from people using different definitions for the same word- which is normal.
DeleteI do not see "freedom" and "liberty" as meaning the same thing. Most people do.
(I'll add links to the definitions I use in the above.)