Freedom

Freedom 


"Ah! Freedom is a noble thing! 
Freedom makes man to have liking; 
Freedom all solace to man gives; 
He lives at ease that freely lives!" 
   ____ John Barbour, "Freedom"

   We take granted today that freedom should be possessed by all people, but there
are still many places in the world where basic human rights are absent. There are many
forms of freedom: national autonomy, individual liberties, spiritual and ideological freedom.
   Individual freedom is composed of many thing: the exercise of personal truth and
integrity, freedom of spiritual belief, the ability to be educated and follow vocational
urges, freedom of movement and of expression and liberty to marry or not marry,
among many other things. The measure to which we are free to exercise these
elements of choice gives us our sense of liberty. When any of these are constrained,
then the struggle for freedom is joined.
   Regimes that scorn free states and countries often sneer at their permissiveness and
inability to curb crime, disorder and dissent - conditions that are generally stamped
upon severely in totalitarian states. We lives in a remarkably tolerant age in the Western
world, an era when maintenance of the freedom we enjoy is being pushed to its limits.
But where tolerance spills over into permissiveness or disorder, totalitarian or restrictive
legislation may be applied and freedoms lost.
   The archetype of freedom recognizes and extends tolerance to all, but it stops short
of allowing people the total freedom to behave as they will; it does not permit anarchy.
The apportioning of freedom in a fair and ordered way has to be balanced to ensure
that it does not become license to infringe on others' liberty.

"Meditate upon the freedoms you enjoy in your life. What are the limits that demarcate
your freedoms?" 
[From The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]