Meaning of freedom

This is why I consider the ususal american government rethoric when they talk about "freedom" a joke. When they are calling to defend their "freedoms" they're basically calling to defend corporate freedom which is another different animal and in many ways completely incompatible with real freedom.

Freedom from a Dead-End Life: True Liberty Means Defeating the Right-Wing's Nightmare Vision for America

http://www.alternet.org/economy/155013/freedom_from_a_dead-end_life%3A_true_liberty_means_defeating_the_right-wing%27s_nightmare_vision_for_america

Last week, Mitt Romney summed up the Right's rhetorical fluff as well as anyone when he told the National Rifle Association that "freedom is the victim of unbounded government appetite." It was an unremarkable comment, so accustomed are we to hearing the Right – a movement that historically opposed women's sufferage and black civil rights and still seeks to quash workers' right to organize and gay and lesbian Americans' right to marry– claim to be defenders of our liberties.

One has to acknowledge the conservative messaging machine for branding its ideological preferences with the rhetoric of "freedom." But it's nothing new. During the 2009 healthcare debate, Steve Benen noted that in 1961, when John F. Kennedy introduced the Medicare bill, Ronald Reagan "warned that if Medicare became law, there was a real possibility that the federal government would control where Americans go and what they do for a living." Reagan told the nation, "If you don't [stop Medicare] . . . one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."

Dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear that "freedom" for the Right offers most of us anything but. It's the freedom for companies to screw their workers, pollute, and otherwise operate free of any meaningful regulations to protect the public interest. It's about the wealthiest among us being free from the burden of paying a fair share of the taxes that help finance a smoothly functioning society.

tl;dr

And the left is better how?

You know the line between Republican and Democrat is so thin, that its essentially non-existant. Both want big government, more spending and war.

And the left is better how?

You know the line between Republican and Democrat is so thin, that its essentially non-existant. Both want big government, more spending and war.

KamuiFei

The opposite of what Kuraimen wants. Whatever he wants.

The opposite of what Kuraimen wants. Whatever he wants.

themajormayor

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="KamuiFei"]

And the left is better how?

You know the line between Republican and Democrat is so thin, that its essentially non-existant. Both want big government, more spending and war.

SEANMCAD

as a 'lefty' myself I get insulted and quick to anger when I am associated with democrats. For two reasons, one, because my values dont match theirs, two, the pure ignorace of people about the value systems of the left.

[QUOTE="themajormayor"]

The opposite of what Kuraimen wants. Whatever he wants.

kuraimen

Freedom if we had freedom don't you think half of us would walk outside to the shops naked?AussieePet

[QUOTE="AussieePet"]Freedom if we had freedom don't you think half of us would walk outside to the shops naked?kuraimen

[QUOTE="KamuiFei"]

And the left is better how?

You know the line between Republican and Democrat is so thin, that its essentially non-existant. Both want big government, more spending and war.

kuraimen

So long as a government exists there is no such thing as absolute freedom.

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="KamuiFei"]

And the left is better how?

You know the line between Republican and Democrat is so thin, that its essentially non-existant. Both want big government, more spending and war.

MadVybz

So long as a government exists there is no such thing as absolute freedom.

1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

1733 The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin."28

1734 Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a3.htm