Freedom: A Montage?

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The word freedom is quite abstract and gets thrown around a lot in politics. It gets thrown around so much sometimes it seems like it's just a meaningless filler word politicians can use to create a positive emotional association in voters' minds (see also Westen, Drew. The Political Brain.). The average person, it seems, never actually stops to think about what absolute freedom might mean and how it's obvious any society imposes some limits on individual freedom. Understanding what freedom could possibly even mean would require cogitating about these limits to freedom and their basis in principle. Instead, the average U.S. voter has developed a series of emotional associations between the symbol of freedom and other symbols: the U.S. flag, a bald eagle flying in the sky, capitalism, motorcyclists wearing American-flag do-rags while riding on the open road, mountains and fields of wheat, country music, etc. The Republican Party and the conservative movement have been fairly successful at causing voters to make the association with them. It all sounds more like a montage, doesn't it? Speaking of which:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9_fDEsv-Q[/youtube]

I think this is a particularly American phenomenon.

People who call themselves libertarians believe in unchecked corporate rights and their view of private property is such that many show sympathy for the institution of slavery and maintenance of that and support for the Southern cause in the civil war.

In the political world, those who make the most talk about freedom are often those who are doing the most to undermine it. The Republican base, huge fans of songs like the one you posted, also unwaveringly support atrocities like the PATRIOT Act, illegal wiretapping, indefinite detention, torture, and censorship.

The ability of the neoconservative movement (only one subset of the Republican Party) to subvert the rhetoric of freedom into a tool for oppression is remarkable, and it is dangerous. "Freedom" is not equivalent to jingoistic militarism. Nor is it contingent on blind worship of the armed forces.

Absolute freedom is meaningless, just as any absolute one can conceive of. But it's a very good example used to illustrate the paradox of absolutes.

Absolute freedom could exist for a single entity, but not globally.
No matter what act I perform, in acting out the "absolute freedom" that I supposedly have, it limits another's freedom.

If I walk into a field and pick a single blade of grass, then no one else any longer has absolute freedom, because they can no longer walk into that same field, and pick that same single blade of grass.

The closest one can come to the illusive absolute freedom, is essentially to apply a concept similar to the Wiccan Rede. (An it harm no one, do as thou will) Though, you'd have to define "harm" to mean "effectively limit another's freedoms"

Governments try to find the balance within what I just described. They however do a very poor job, but that is to be expected, they have their own self-interests. We have pseudo-democracy, so the issue of getting re-elected is too important. Pressure groups speak loud and carry clout, so there has to be some capitulation to avoid problems.

The other facet of this discussion, is that most humans DO NOT WANT freedom.
they want to call the life they life free... but they do not want real freedom. They want rules so that they don't have to think, care, reason, etc... They want direction and guidance. They are weak, they are fragile, they cannot handle freedom. This group is a very loud group too.

There are people who desire freedom with all their hearts though. Some of them do not know or understand what they talk about, but a good portion of them really do understand it. I believe myself to be in that group. I know what freedom entails, and what is involved in obtaining it and living it. We also speak very loudly.

So, the two loudest groups both speak of freedom. One holds the true idea, the other holds an inconsistent idea wherein people are free to do what they're told to do or suffer the consequences. And so begets this whole issue.