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What does Freedom really mean?

well, in the united states, the government believes that freedom is the right for the people to choose how their government is run.

personally, i believe freedom is the right to live your life free of the influence of government.
 
Main Entry: free·dom
Pronunciation: 'frE-d&m
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being free: as a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : INDEPENDENCE c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous <freedom from care> d : EASE, FACILITY <spoke the language with freedom> e : the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken <answered with freedom> f : improper familiarity g : boldness of conception or execution h : unrestricted use <gave him the freedom of their home>
2 a : a political right b : FRANCHISE, PRIVILEGE
synonyms FREEDOM, LIBERTY, LICENSE mean the power or condition of acting without compulsion. FREEDOM has a broad range of application from total absence of restraint to merely a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated <freedom of the press>. LIBERTY suggests release from former restraint or compulsion <the released prisoner had difficulty adjusting to his new liberty>. LICENSE implies freedom specially granted or conceded and may connote an abuse of freedom <freedom without responsibility may degenerate into license>.

End of Thread.
 
Obviously, it doesn't mean the ability to do whatever you want. Because at some point, you're going to infringe on the freedom of others.

(I know where this is going... "Wouldn't absolute freedom mean not having to pay taxes, and being able to murder without consequence?")
 
Although I am enjoying the freedom of late night TV in Amsterdam right now (here on business). Boobies on commercials for phone sex. This is an area America could take some lessons on freedom.

Of course, it would infringe on others' rights to watch TV and not see porn.
 
I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. - Professor Bernardo de la Paz in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (Robert Heinlein)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

- C.S. Lewis

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase...the human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.

- Frank Herbert

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear

- George Orwell

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in all the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.

- John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"
 
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