Freedom
THE POINT IS TO BE FREE.
Freedom is self-determination; autonomy in all areas of your life, to direct your life using your free will. Freedom does not include the right to exploit, injure or steal. Each individual must be free to engage in what they choose. The founders of this idea, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, all believed that men should be set free from the prevailing constraints that kept them imprisoned and static 1.
American freedom was defined by Thomas Jefferson as “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Jefferson borrowed these inalienable rights from John Locke, who essentially said that the more people who are able to truly pursue their own happiness, the stronger America is at home and around the world.
America is the promise for each of us to be who we are and live how we want. It’s all about that struggle. The people who get to be who they are have the American dream. For the rest of us, that’s our mission.
Originally, those constraints were the Feudal caste system, in which people played by rigid rules. The nobility – the lucky sperm club – were born into money and land ownership. Everyone else had to rent the land, at prices they did not negotiate but received, and gave over much of the profits from their activities to the land owners.
Source of Feudalism – Subjugation and Agreement:
Somehow, people accepted that there was a class of people that was inherently superior. The nobility were assumed to be superior in God’s eyes and thus deserved their wealth. Ripping out the rules of feudal society created competition. Competition is critical, but it always should be directed with rules and referees. Without rules and referees, we wouldn’t have football, we’d have a death match. Today, we aren’t able to compete on a level playing field. People don’t police their own conduct. ↑
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