new and improved!
A random headline that caught my attention (I think it was an online post from a Scottish media outlet/newspaper) mentioned the “new freedoms” being permitted due to COVID restrictions being eased.
That obviously set off my internal geek semantics alarms. “Free” is one of those “understood but hard to define” words. MAYBE “free” is best understood by comparing it to something else – e.g. a “free human being” is not a “slave.”
Short form: “free” (in English) dates back to the 12th Century with Germanic roots implying “personal ownership” or maybe “self determination” and “lack of external coercion.”
Then (maybe) “freedom” is the “quality of being free” and (maybe) it started as a shortened form of “free from domination” (it sounds plausible)
Anarchy
Arguably if humanity has a “natural state” – then it is without defined law and therefore without a functioning government. Starting with a theoretical individual – if they are living by themselves, then they are completely free to do whatever they want, whenever they want BY THEMSELVES.
So it would be accurate to say that anarchy is complete “freedom” for the individual. Meaning that right and wrong are decided by the individual as they please.
Which isn’t inherently bad – until individuals start living together (i.e. “families”). Then those family groups grow into “tribes” and then tribes living close to each other have to deal with interactions between tribes, etc
First cities/”Primitive war”/Protect us from each other
Obviously back in “primitive times” the first walled cities were (most likely) created to protect the “extended tribe” from animal attacks.
(random thought/tangent: Off the top of my head – for the majority of human existence, the major occupation was “subsistence farming” and a cities “walls” served as borders and as protection.
Then gunpowder happened, and the industrial revolution, and the “modern world” – as experienced in 2021 – really only dates back 100 years of so … but anyway …)
There is an old line that “God made man free, humanity invented slavery” – which illustrates what happens when those theoretical “tribes” start interacting without some agreed upon form of law – i.e. if there are scarce resources, most likely the stronger will dominate/enslave the weaker – i.e. the “natural order” is that “might makes right.”
Meanwhile…
So the earliest forms of conflict between groups (probably) involved stealing women (for obvious reasons), and then capturing slaves either as forced labor or as “sacrifices”/offerings to pagan deities.
The point is that there are no “new” freedoms – i.e. the history of humanity involves the “restricting of freedom” by various groups for one reason or another.
It might be accurate to say “restrictions are being removed” but not that “new freedom are being granted.“
Human gov’ment can’t “grant new freedom” anymore than they can grant more gravity, or make the earth go around the sun faster, or give me the ability to sing in pleasing tones 😉 (umm, if you have heard me sing, then one of us was drinking – and it was probably “The Minstrel Boy” – traditional version – or if I was slightly tipsy something random)
Freedom within the law …
Of course what is desired is then “freedom” WITHIN the law.
Again, if we go back to our theoretical tribe – the “first laws” would be about protecting individuals from each other. Then if folks aren’t killing each other (e.g. murder is bad) and society starts to form/grow – maybe “the tribe” starts worrying about “property laws” (e.g. stealing is bad), then passing on property/inheritance becomes an issue and “marriage” laws both strengthen the family unit and provide a way to legitimize “heirs” – but that is just me guessing.
If you want to sound pretentious you might say that humans formed the earliest governments to “legitimize the use of force.”
If you want to argue that “more laws” don’t make folks righteous – well, I’ll agree with that – and then quickly point out that the “truth” is somewhere in the middle. i.e. “no law” is just as bad as “slavery by regulation” – both extremes put the individual at the mercy of potentially malicious external forces: e.g. either “other folks” or a tyrannical indifferent bureaucracy …