Definitions

As noted science fiction author Philip K. Dick opined, "The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."

There are a couple of words I’m going to use quite a bit, so I thought it would be a good idea to define them.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my surname happens to be the German word for “freedom.” My father died when I was quite young so I never got a chance to ask him why he named me Max. My mother told me that I was named after a family friend. I suppose it could have happened that way.

Now I don’t believe my name had anything to do with my classic liberal views; I never made the connection until later in life. In any case, I have a very big “thing” for the concept of freedom, and freedom’s handmaiden, liberty.

Now, most people equate freedom and liberty. They believe the two words mean the same thing. They don’t.

I’m sure that most of you have watched Mel Gibson’s movie, Braveheart. I direct your attention to the line that Gibson, as William Wallace, delivers so well, “…they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!"

Liberty can be taken away, freedom cannot. You were born into freedom; you are granted liberty by your fellow man, or not.

When I need to make the distinction between the terms freedom and liberty, I will point them out. Until then, I will yield to common usage and pretend that they mean the same thing.

So what does liberty/freedom mean? Let’s see what others had to say about the subject:

“Live and let live.” -Friedrich von Schiller.

"Freedom is the right to live as we wish." -Epictetus

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." -Albert Camus

"The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or to impede their efforts to obtain it.” -John Stuart Mill

“I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights.” -Abraham Lincoln

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’, because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” -Thomas Jefferson

I especially like Jefferson’s definition although I have to admit that Lincoln did state it rather succinctly as well.

But notice that there are two distinct components to liberty: what we have the freedom to do, and the limits we place on ourselves due to the equal freedoms of others. Most people have trouble understanding this. Sadly, most Libertarians have that same trouble.

But again, I wax cynical; I point out distinctions that most people don’t want to see.

I’m going to leave you with what I consider to be an excellent explanation of The Philosophy of Liberty.