I was reading an article in Politico yesterday which indicated that Americans valued “freedom” over “equality.” What do these terms mean, as experienced by the average American, and how do they interact in real life? I will be discussing those issues in a series of posts over the next week.
I will start with a working definition: “freedom” is the practical ability to behave in accordance with one’s free will.
The most important part of this definition is “practical ability;” it is not just a legal concept. I will use two examples to illustrate the point. If you visit a significant number of tourist attractions in China, you will see people taking photos all over the place notwithstanding large signs prohibiting the practice and the presence of guards. The Chinese clearly are “free” in that instance regardless of the letter of the law. On the other hand, poor people in America have the same legal right as wealthy people to purchase a Lexus, but no practical ability to do so. In the real world, that is not “freedom.”
Analysts frequently refer to two types of freedom: “negative” freedom from government action; and “positive” freedom assisted by government action. Right-wingers typically extol the former and reject the latter. For the average person in a typical situation, the distinction isn’t really that clean. I will address that in my next post.