Thursday, July 8, 2010

Limiting Freedom

Sovereignty, although we are born with the command to rule, isn't all it's cracked up to be. The more individual freedom we have, the more separated we are from others. And we are made not only to be free-- to make individual, sovereign choices-- but also to be in community-- to be connected to other people. Thus, in order for us to be balanced, we often will need to agree to limit our freedom for the sake of our needs.


We can make the choice to limit our freedom for a short or long term. Contracts are made to pay for services rendered—this means that we receive a service or good and we lose the freedom to use our money in other ways. We can make an agreement with an employer to work for him or her for a period of time a week, which the employer agrees to pay us certain amounts of money. This is a long term arrangement which limits our freedom, but one in which we have the freedom to annul to obtain more freedom.

We may feel like slaves because our livelihood depends on the employer, but the fact is that we have other choices, just perhaps not so many that allows us to live the lifestyle we expect or want. But, again, it is our freedom to choose that lifestyle or another, such as being homeless.

Homeless people may feel limited because their lifestyle is illegal and they feel that they have no choice but to live on the street. Freedom in this context is complicated. Homelessness demands a certain freedom, but it also thrusts one to live freely when one may not want to live with so much freedom (i.e. without employment). So it could be that forced homelessness, while seeming more free, is actually the least free lifestyle.

The important aspect of agreeing to limit our freedom is the freedom to opt out of that agreement with few limitations. But if one’s survival depends on the limitation of freedom, are we really free to opt out of it?

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