Greetings, friends and fellow bloggers. Here I am at work on the US Independence Day. And I am thankful for it. A little extra on the pay check is always helpful. So, here is what is on my mind today: Freedom. As a concept and as a totality. As a concept, Freedom is relatively simple. Perhaps at the lowest common denominator, Freedom is the ability to exert one's own free will, to have the political prerogative to have access to multiple opportunities for personal choice. I will not be discussing this, In part because I think this concept is a fallacy. As a totality, Freedom is something altogether different. Freedom cannot be seen isolated, by itself, and expected to have any kind of real meaning other than symbolic. This is true for many, many reasons. The simplest heuristic example is this: does freedom mean that one has a right to intrude upon another's freedom. A burglar cannot enter my home, take my possessions, threaten my family, and then claim, "Well, it's a free country". In its totality, Freedom doesn't belong to one person, it belongs to everyone...or it ultimately belongs to no-one. So Freedom does have its own limits and constraints. And it should, as Freedom should never be a tool of oppression. Recall Orwell from Animal Farm: all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. I think that the best proxy for Freedom, politically speaking, are Civil Rights - protections from the oppression of others. So to have Freedom, one must give up something in return. I do not believe this is the theory of the Social Contract from Hobbs, and later utilitarians such as Mill and Bentham. It is, rather, a simple recognition that 1. Freedom = responsibility and 2. that Freedom comes at its own cost...ad sometimes that pricy is very high.

Memory: Sometime in August of 2003, I am in Qwest Field in Seattle. The occasion is the Summer Sanitarium Tour. It was really one of the best shows I had ever been to. Mudvayne, Deftones, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and Metallica. Except for LB, that was a helleva lineup. Just before Metallica started, I saw a t-shirt that sticks out in my mind. The shirt said: Freedom isn't Free.

Segue: Since that time, every Independence Day that I work...or the day before or after if I have the 4th off...I propose this concept to the kids I work with. What does Freedom mean to you? And, if Freedom isn't Free, then what price are you willing to pay for your definition of Freedom?