The history and meaning behind the word "freedom" has been a topic of controversy. There are many different perspective of what freedom truly means and what influences it has on the nation we lived in. According to the Oxford Dictionary the word freedom means "The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint." To me, the word freedom is being able to act and express anyway without causing harm.. Many questions have been asked about whether we are truly free of being restraint or if everything is control by higher authority who swear to protect us. Some believe that we are not free, that nothing happens freely, and that nothing happens by chance. We have this constitution describing our freedom but the …show more content…
real question why do we have a piece of paper telling us what our freedom is? In this paper I will discuss many topics regarding the history and the meaning of freedom. The idea of freedom is sometimes difficult to understand and because of this there are many different views to what freedom actually is. My opinion of freedom is having the ability to choose what you want to do. Having the ability to make your own choices allows you to not be constrained by events that have occurred in the past. Freedom is also the ability to change, if you do not like something then you are free to do what you want. We are always free to change our values, broaden our knowledge, change how we live; this is why I believe we are free. We are not constrained by anything. In the 1700's before The United States of America was a country it was under the control of England.
The King of England imposed laws and taxes that the people of America saw as unlawful. The suppression forced upon the people were taking their freedom away. However change soon occurred, the men and women of America revolted against England and they were able to gain freedom from Britain. How were they able to gain freedom? Was this change of power determine by fate, did this all happen by chance or did people have a choice? In my opinion, if humans were not free and everything was predetermined then the country of the United States of America would not exist today, we would have continued on living under the England and its constraining laws. The laws set by the King of England would have stood forever without change. The people would be unable to freely change their views and revolt they would have lived the inevitable result of past …show more content…
events. Another example of a constraint on our freedoms is the censorship of freedom of speech.
When a citizen of the United States finds a terrifying truth about the government and spread news about it to the citizen of the United States. The government would use all their resources to silence these individual. For an example Mumia Abu-Jamal was a radio journalist who spoke about corruption in the police force and politics. In 1981 Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested and charged for murder to police officer Daniel Faulkner. The police had no evidence that Mumia Abu-Jamal had murder the police officer but yet they still arrested him. Before Mumia Abu-Jamal went to court, the judge and jury of the state already had the verdict of guilty on their minds. This shows that the freedom of speech is not truly free at all. If the United State is truly the "land of the free" why is the government silencing those who speak the truth about
them? Different times in history have been witness to many changes in freedoms and rights. In the years that the Soviet Union was a communist country people were told what to do by the government, for example what job you had, if you did not do what they told you then you were punished. Were these people free? Could they make their own choices? These people living in the Soviet Union were human beings so they should be free like me right? Well not exactly they were told what to do, events that happened in the past did have effect on their life in the future and sometimes you had no option to change this. Your life may have already been decided by what family you were in or what race you were. Race is another great example of how people's freedoms are constrained. With the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the south from 1890's and all the way until the 1970's blacks were stripped of many of their freedoms. The KKK took away the Africans American freedoms by limiting them to certain places in town or limiting them to certain low paying jobs. This shows that freedoms can be taken away by other things besides the Government. There are many different views of the word freedom along with many different levels of being free. You have the power to choose how you want to live your life and are able to change personally but you unable to fully express your freedom. Other nations in the world and different time periods have seen different forms of freedom. As for me I believe that I am not truly free, there are a lot constraints but I am able to choose what I want and change to who I want to be. Living in the United States plays a big role in my freedom. My right of freedom can be taken away anytime. The laws in the United States shows the citizen are not truly free at all. The men and women serving in the military, have their rights taken away as soon they swear their oath to the United States.
According to Dictionary.com freedom means “the state of being uncontrolled by another, or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.” Freedom. What does freedom mean to you? Even though freedom means the state of being uncontrolled by another, or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint, I believe that freedom means being able to accomplish what you desire and when you desire it without anyone saying anything, by reason of the comparison and contrast of our society and the society in the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, the negation of the word freedom, and synonyms of the word freedom. I believe that you should accept the consequences of the actions you take when you have your “freedom” as well.
In Eric Foner’s book, The Story of American Freedom, he writes a historical monograph about how liberty came to be. In the book, his argument does not focus on one fixed definition of freedom like others are tempted to do. Unlike others, Foner describes liberty as an ever changing entity; its definition is fluid and does not change in a linear progress. While others portray liberty as a pre-determined concept and gradually getting better, Foner argues the very history of liberty is constantly reshaping the definition of liberty, itself. Essentially, the multiple and conflicting views on liberty has always been a “terrain of conflict” and has changed in time (Foner xv).
God has given us as human beings free will. Although if we make choices based on our own free will we must be willing to take the responsibility for the effects that our decisions have on ourselves, on the people around us, and on society itself. Freedom, I believe, is the way in which people live or behave without others annoying or interfering in his or her affairs. People should benefit from freedom, equality and justice. Absolute freedom is sometimes very dangerous and may destroy the basic principles of the society. A lot of people believe that freedom means doing whatever you want, whenever you want.
In my English class at Capital High School, we recently read the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and we discussed whether freedom is really free. In my opinion freedom isn't really free. The definition of freedom itself differs from person to person. Some describe it as a inner freedom while others as an outer freedom. The real definition of freedom is that everyone has the right to chose for themselves, bot not for anyone else. In the word freedom they are many contradictions. Freedom is everywhere yet nowhere. We are captured by the government yet we are free.
In conclusion, freedom is having power to inflict a positive change on the world. The ability to be yourself and not change for anyone. The right to choose who rules and who doesn’t rule. Having a chance to get out there and show the world what your all about and who you really are. These are all definitions of freedom and what it truly means to be
Looking the word “freedom” up in the dictionary, I encounter with the following definition: the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited.¹³ Then, we can assume when you are unable to say things you would like to say, or to think in a different way than the one that has been imposed to you, you are not wholly free.
Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. In America there is numerous of choices that someone may make on a daily basis. If someone were allowed to make their own choices and were being told what to do; then they would not be free. When someone is allowed to speak when they want to, and say what they want; such as their opinion or view of something. Being allowed to have a right to speak is one of the most important characteristics of being an American. Thinking and stating your opinion in any predicament it a strong part in being a citizen because people in the United States are known for being able to think in their own ways. Freedom can stretch too many things such as being able to do as they please, they are not forced into doing anything that someone may want. The citizens of the United States are not made to do anything that one may not want to do; like
In the political vocabulary, freedom is the central term in which it's mostly used interchangeably- then and now, but is deeply imbedded into our history as Americans in everyday life and in history. Freedom in our country is invoked to support wars: the Revolution was fought to bring about freedom by fighting oppression from the king, and the Civil War was founght to bring a new birth of freedom. Our history supports and contradicts the term freedom. It supports freedom by the formation of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, our democracy, and manifest destiny. But our history also contradicts freedom by the happenings of slavery, and the fact that the term freedom was limited to race, gender, and social status. So was our history
Freedom is having the right to own, act, think, and speak without any restrictions from the outside. Ever since the New World was discovered, people have been fighting for their independence till this day. People of other colors and race have been forced to do labor without their consent. Today, those same people have been blamed or accused of crimes that were not committed by them despite of being free. Freedom has different meanings and those meanings change overtime; however sometimes the significance of freedom does not change.
Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.
The American Ideological Consensus is that “…the American people have shared much of the same ideals, the same basic principles, and the same patterns of belief” (McClenaghan 104). When America filled itself with ideologically homogenous people, their beliefs started to define our nation and became American identities. If asked what they think of America, peoples of other nations would say that the roads are made of glass, opportunity is in the air, and civil rights are plentiful. These accounts maybe accentuated; however, the underlying message is that the American people have more freedoms then the peoples of other nations do. The most widely known American identity is freedom, and even though that American identity has been tried and tested throughout much of its history, it can still be said that America is a land of liberty.
Perhaps the most exclusive aspect of American freedom is stated directly in the Declaration of Independence. It states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (Jefferson). This well-known statement truly incorporates all facets of what it means to be free in America. The citizens of this country have the right to live. They have the right to be free of restriction and control, to do what they please. And they have the right to be happy in whatever way that might be. These rights are...
Freedom of choice is important because, if you don’t have freedom of choice, then you have a utopian society. That’s what you have Anthem but that’s not what you have in the United States. The United States has freedom of choice. For example, we are able to choose who we worship or to not worship anything at all. We also get to choose who gets to be president. But in other countries you don’t get to have this freedom that we have here in America. Example in the USSR you don’t have the freedom to choose. You have a type of government that is called communism. Communism is where you have a no freedom of choice. Unlike in the United States, you are ruled by a dictator. This is what you have in the book Anthem.
I believe that there has never been true freedom. The closest thing to freedom was when the natives and animals were the only ones occupying the earth. Of course there is freedom in heaven, and freedom before Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. Some people may not believe that, it’s an opinion based on religion. Many people say that the United States is a free country. And I could not agree with them any more. They are absolutely correct. America is the most free country in the world. But this is not true freedom. The Dictionary.com definition of freedom is “the power to determine action without restraint.” And in America or any other free country, there are laws to follow. So you can not do whatever you want whenever you want without resistance. Especially if it is disobeying or breaking a law.
Freedom has limitations just as it has privileges. Everyone is allowed freedom of speech, but if an individual were to yell fire in a public building they would be thrown in jail. Thus implying that freedom of speech has limitations. The government does in ...