Happy 5th of July everybody! Sam and I hope you didn’t consume too many fifths yesterday to commemorate our national day of freedom and your pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. More importantly, we hope you won’t have to take the 5th Amendment to avoid testifying against yourself for something stupid you did yesterday. Freedom and liberty sure can be a two-way street. Look at what’s currently happening in Egypt as a prime example.
Quoting from our nearly infallible encyclopedic information source Wikipedia, Sam and I see that, “John Stuart Mill, in his work, On Liberty, was the first to recognize the difference between liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as the absence of coercion. In his book, Two Concepts of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin, formally framed the differences between these two perspectives as the distinction between two opposite concepts of liberty: positive liberty and negative liberty. The latter designates a negative condition in which an individual is protected from tyranny and the arbitrary exercise of authority, while the former refers to having the means or opportunity, rather than the lack of restraint, to do things.
Did you get all that?
From Merriam Webster online we get the definition of freedom 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.
d: a political right.
From an internet site called macfreedom.com, on the other hand, we can get this: “Freedom is the wonderful app for Windows and Mac computers that locks you away from the ‘net. If online distractions kill your productivity, Freedom could be the best 10 dollars you’ll ever spend.”
At Freedictionary.com, freedom is defined as
1. The condition of being free of restraints.
2. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
a. Political independence.
b. Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
3. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition.
4. The capacity to exercise choice; free will.
5. Ease or facility of movement:
6. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve.
7. AND SO ON.
Ah, but George Orwell reportedly once said, “Freedom is slavery.”
Sam and I suppose some of you out there know what he meant by that. All we know is that we’re free and have the liberty to write this blog three days a week and say whatever we want. We like that. Three bags of poop on anybody or anything that would restrain us. (Well okay, maybe not on Kathleen).
Boy, we can hardly wait to write something thought provoking about Labor Day!
Quoting from our nearly infallible encyclopedic information source Wikipedia, Sam and I see that, “John Stuart Mill, in his work, On Liberty, was the first to recognize the difference between liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as the absence of coercion. In his book, Two Concepts of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin, formally framed the differences between these two perspectives as the distinction between two opposite concepts of liberty: positive liberty and negative liberty. The latter designates a negative condition in which an individual is protected from tyranny and the arbitrary exercise of authority, while the former refers to having the means or opportunity, rather than the lack of restraint, to do things.
Did you get all that?
From Merriam Webster online we get the definition of freedom 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.
d: a political right.
From an internet site called macfreedom.com, on the other hand, we can get this: “Freedom is the wonderful app for Windows and Mac computers that locks you away from the ‘net. If online distractions kill your productivity, Freedom could be the best 10 dollars you’ll ever spend.”
At Freedictionary.com, freedom is defined as
1. The condition of being free of restraints.
2. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
a. Political independence.
b. Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
3. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition.
4. The capacity to exercise choice; free will.
5. Ease or facility of movement:
6. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve.
7. AND SO ON.
Ah, but George Orwell reportedly once said, “Freedom is slavery.”
Sam and I suppose some of you out there know what he meant by that. All we know is that we’re free and have the liberty to write this blog three days a week and say whatever we want. We like that. Three bags of poop on anybody or anything that would restrain us. (Well okay, maybe not on Kathleen).
Boy, we can hardly wait to write something thought provoking about Labor Day!
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