what does freedom really mean? by ron paul (a fantastic article)

ron paul should run for governor of texas.

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst020705.htm

What does Freedom Really Mean?

February 7, 2005


â??â?¦man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.â?�
Ronald Reagan


Weâ??ve all heard the words democracy and freedom used countless times, especially in the context of our invasion of Iraq. They are used interchangeably in modern political discourse, yet their true meanings are very different.

George Orwell wrote about â??meaningless wordsâ?� that are endlessly repeated in the political arena*. Words like â??freedom,â?� â??democracy,â?� and â??justice,â?� Orwell explained, have been abused so long that their original meanings have been eviscerated. In Orwellâ??s view, political words were â??Often used in a consciously dishonest way.â?� Without precise meanings behind words, politicians and elites can obscure reality and condition people to reflexively associate certain words with positive or negative perceptions. In other words, unpleasant facts can be hidden behind purposely meaningless language. As a result, Americans have been conditioned to accept the word â??democracyâ?� as a synonym for freedom, and thus to believe that democracy is unquestionably good.

The problem is that democracy is not freedom. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, which is inherently incompatible with real freedom. Our founding fathers clearly understood this, as evidenced not only by our republican constitutional system, but also by their writings in the Federalist Papers and elsewhere. James Madison cautioned that under a democratic government, â??There is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual.â?� John Adams argued that democracies merely grant revocable rights to citizens depending on the whims of the masses, while a republic exists to secure and protect pre-existing rights. Yet how many Americans know that the word â??democracyâ?� is found neither in the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence, our very founding documents?

A truly democratic election in Iraq, without U.S. interference and U.S. puppet candidates, almost certainly would result in the creation of a Shiite theocracy. Shiite majority rule in Iraq might well mean the complete political, economic, and social subjugation of the minority Kurd and Sunni Arab populations. Such an outcome would be democratic, but would it be free? Would the Kurds and Sunnis consider themselves free? The administration talks about democracy in Iraq, but is it prepared to accept a democratically-elected Iraqi government no matter what its attitude toward the U.S. occupation? Hardly. For all our talk about freedom and democracy, the truth is we have no idea whether Iraqis will be free in the future. Theyâ??re certainly not free while a foreign army occupies their country. The real test is not whether Iraq adopts a democratic, pro-western government, but rather whether ordinary Iraqis can lead their personal, religious, social, and business lives without interference from government.

Simply put, freedom is the absence of government coercion. Our Founding Fathers understood this, and created the least coercive government in the history of the world. The Constitution established a very limited, decentralized government to provide national defense and little else. States, not the federal government, were charged with protecting individuals against criminal force and fraud. For the first time, a government was created solely to protect the rights, liberties, and property of its citizens. Any government coercion beyond that necessary to secure those rights was forbidden, both through the Bill of Rights and the doctrine of strictly enumerated powers. This reflected the foundersâ?? belief that democratic government could be as tyrannical as any King.

Few Americans understand that all government action is inherently coercive. If nothing else, government action requires taxes. If taxes were freely paid, they wouldnâ??t be called taxes, theyâ??d be called donations. If we intend to use the word freedom in an honest way, we should have the simple integrity to give it real meaning: Freedom is living without government coercion. So when a politician talks about freedom for this group or that, ask yourself whether he is advocating more government action or less.

The political left equates freedom with liberation from material wants, always via a large and benevolent government that exists to create equality on earth. To modern liberals, men are free only when the laws of economics and scarcity are suspended, the landlord is rebuffed, the doctor presents no bill, and groceries are given away. But philosopher Ayn Rand (and many others before her) demolished this argument by explaining how such â??freedomâ?� for some is possible only when government takes freedoms away from others. In other words, government claims on the lives and property of those who are expected to provide housing, medical care, food, etc. for others are coercive-- and thus incompatible with freedom. â??Liberalism,â?� which once stood for civil, political, and economic liberties, has become a synonym for omnipotent coercive government.

The political right equates freedom with national greatness brought about through military strength. Like the left, modern conservatives favor an all-powerful central state-- but for militarism, corporatism, and faith-based welfarism. Unlike the Taft-Goldwater conservatives of yesteryear, todayâ??s Republicans are eager to expand government spending, increase the federal police apparatus, and intervene militarily around the world. The last tenuous links between conservatives and support for smaller government have been severed. â??Conservatism,â?� which once meant respect for tradition and distrust of active government, has transformed into big-government utopian grandiosity.

Orwell certainly was right about the use of meaningless words in politics. If we hope to remain free, we must cut through the fog and attach concrete meanings to the words politicians use to deceive us. We must reassert that America is a republic, not a democracy, and remind ourselves that the Constitution places limits on government that no majority can overrule. We must resist any use of the word â??freedomâ?� to describe state action. We must reject the current meaningless designations of â??liberalsâ?� and â??conservatives,â?� in favor of an accurate term for both: statists.

Every politician on earth claims to support freedom. The problem is so few of them understand the simple meaning of the word.



*Politics and the English Language, 1946.

This is a great article, this should be made mandatory reading for then entire population of the USA. Freedom, Democracy, yadda yadda yadda... It doesn't mean jack shit anymore.

There's a little experiment anyone can do at home, and it works better after you get a little stoned: pick a word, any word, and repeat it, out loud, for a little while, maybe 50-100 times. The word loses all meaning and eventually it's just a sound coming out of your mouth. That's what Bush did to Freedom and Democracy, an empty sounds coming out of his monkey-mouth.

Yes, that is a nice article. Ron Paul is a good guy. I like him even though I don't always agree with him. Your right, words do lose their meaning after a while. Not just Freedom and Democracy either. There are other words that have been repeated enough to lose meaning around also. Words like nazi, police state, tyranny and many more that are abused and rendered meaningless by their over use.

Toker

how else can you describe it when things that happen in the present, also happened in nazi germany? or russia? or china? or north korea? or any other despotic system...why shouldn't the comparison be made?

take IBM for example, who set up the systems the nazis used to number and track people and calculate how many calories they should get before they were killed among other things...they own a lot of the companies that are setting up an eerily similar system here...it's not freedom, but it certainly is a little nazi-like...

nazi germany was one dictatorship with psychological warfare and documented methods of propaganda to coerce the population into accepting and cheering on dictatorship, that's the comparison.

"how else can you describe it when things that happen in the present, also happened in nazi germany?"

The problem with that PH, is that your exagerations of today compared to nazi Germany are so far off it can't really be called the same. Yet every time you use the word nazi and compare it to todays world, you are rendering that word meaningless as to it's true meaning. In other words, your changing the meaning of the word just like is claimed bushy is doing with Freedom and democracy. It's not hard to figure out if you try PH. You use those words, nazi and such, much in the same fashion bushy uses Freedom and democracy. I can't help but wonder at why you would over look yourself doing it, but bitch to high holy hell about bushy doing it. You can deny it all you want PH, but I'm sure that deep down you know I am right, and your use is the same as bushys. Bushy uses words to get the emotional reaction he is looking for, and so do you.

Toker

you didn't even address anything i said.

we have former senators and presidents funding nazis, studying their propaganda, using the propaganda, dozens and dozens of nazi business' assets seized even after WWII...laundering nazi money through banks, providing them with the services to kill their people through US corporations, the same system in place today...this is the tip of the iceberg, operation paperclip and IBM.

i think the comparison applies more than you realize. but i know, nothing can be known about anything, things are basically okay, no problems, the constitution and bill of rights are intact, and if they aren't, no one can do anything to stop what's not happening from happening...so let's just stop discussing it even as the dictatorship becomes obviouly apparent.

i'll just accept the cameras and toll roads and takeover of access TV and transponders in my car and people taking microchips and NAFTA and the FTAA and world government and world taxation and world courts and world this and world that and sticking people in grease cages for days without charges or trial after being rounded up indiscriminately in orange fencing, because the only way to stop terrorism is by doing that. those darn RNC protesters got what they deserved i guess, a taste of the new freedom.

being sprayed with mace after cops are ordered to attack innocent people after standing by and watching the fed hired thugs destroy a city is actually freedom, who am i to say that's not freedom. no protest zones, no stickers or pins with anti-WTO messages, that's freedom too. how dare i say it's not. there's a whole bunch of historical comparisons there too.

too bad people here in austin have found out that if you bitch and complain enough and have enough an informed citizenry, the takeover becomes a bit more difficult and you can defeat blatantly tyrannical and unconstitutional activities.

Your my hero PH! Saving US all from Tyranny the way you are makes you just one hell of a guy in my book. Why your a true patriot!

"you didn't even address anything i said."

Look again man, I most certainly did address what you said. Why would you open your reply with such an obviously false statement?

"we have former senators and presidents funding nazis, studying their propaganda, using the propaganda, dozens and dozens of nazi business' assets seized even after WWII...laundering nazi money through banks, providing them with the services to kill their people through US corporations, the same system in place today...this is the tip of the iceberg, operation paperclip and IBM."

Oh my god!!! Your kidding? Holy sheep shit, why didn't you say so sooner? Hell, that makes all the difference in the world right there. Operation paper clip and ibm says it all. Damn them, damn them all to hell for their conspiring against Freedom and democracy the way they are!

"but i know, nothing can be known about anything, things are basically okay, no problems, the constitution and bill of rights are intact, and if they aren't, no one can do anything to stop what's not happening from happening...so let's just stop discussing it even as the dictatorship becomes obviouly apparent."

Oh you poor thing! So upset that your just going to give up? Wow, what a quiter you are. You seem to think anyone that doesn't agree with you is just the opposite of you. Your sarcasim is nothing more then shallow lies trying to decieve others into believing something that is not true.

"so let's just stop discussing it even as the dictatorship becomes obviouly apparent."

With that your implying that I think you shouldn't talk about it, when you know good and well that's not true. Of course you can talk about whatever you want. Of course I will talk too. You posted an artical that I thought described a bit more then just Freedom and democracy being marginalized. I also feel you do the same thing, just with other words. Should I have said nothing in response to your post if I felt like I should say something? Do you feel you have a right to say whatever you want in a public place without someone saying something back to you about what you have said?

"i'll just accept the cameras and toll roads and takeover of access TV and transponders in my car and people taking microchips and NAFTA and the FTAA and world government and world taxation and world courts and world this and world that and sticking people in grease cages for days without charges or trial after being rounded up indiscriminately in orange fencing, because the only way to stop terrorism is by doing that. those darn RNC protesters got what they deserved i guess, a taste of the new freedom."

No you won't! You will keep on living in your imaginary world chasing butterflys with no net trying to catch one in flight. The fact that your denying an obvious tactic your using your self says to me that your totaly in denial and you can't face the fact that your doing exactly the same thing bushy is doing.

"being sprayed with mace after cops are ordered to attack innocent people after standing by and watching the fed hired thugs destroy a city is actually freedom, who am i to say that's not freedom. no protest zones, no stickers or pins with anti-WTO messages, that's freedom too. how dare i say it's not. there's a whole bunch of historical comparisons there too."

Tell me oh historical one, when does the US start it's concentration camps, tanks in the streets, and marshal law? Don't give me no BS about this taking a long time. Good grief, it's been happening for hundreds of years to here you tell it. If they are not ready now, what is it that will make them ready to do it. Whatever is it they are going to do anyway? Oh yeah, round up everyone and put them in camps. Are these the same camps we talked about in the past? My guess is that they are the same camps. Those that do not remember the past, are condemed to repeat it. Do you remember our last conversation about prison camps PH?

"too bad people here in austin have found out that if you bitch and complain enough and have enough an informed citizenry, the takeover becomes a bit more difficult and you can defeat blatantly tyrannical and unconstitutional activities."

Really? Is that why your wonderful city locks people up for a joint? You must not be bitching loud enough, your city doesn't seem to be listening, and hasn't been listening for a long time.

Toker

i posted an article with tanks on the streets of LA a few months ago. have you read the model state emergency health powers act, probably not, you're above that. the RNC was martial law. would you be saying what a free country you lived in if you were rounded up in a net and taken to an old bus depot for days without being charged with a crime? is that constitutional? you probably would think it's freedom, i don't know why i'm asking.

you think unconstitutional searches are freedom too...oh well, as long as the really bad stuff happens to other people. as long as it's gary webb shooting himself in the face twice after exposing the CIA shipping in drugs and you're there to look the other way...things are just fine.

and only you could turn the defeat of the austin access TV takeover into nothing. congratulations. i suppose nothing should have been done, right? then there wouldn't be access TV that anyone could get a show on, right? fraud, money laundering, we should have just accepted, thanks.

what should we have done then? any suggestions? too late. Time Warner was attempting to get rid of our charter in covert ways, and it was stopped, and people were charged and are going to jail. we get to keep the oldest installation of access TV in the country, and this is bad?

why do you call yourself a libertarian?

and you're right, never once in history have there been concentration camps, not even today, they're happy love camps in china. you're very smart. just promise me you'll take your loving vaccine when the time comes.

you also apparently think dictatorship are born overnight, and you can't see the obvious change the country's taken in the last 20 years. has the government taken steps to give us more freedom, or have they taken it away...it's not so obvious to you i guess.

i forgot again, nothing can be known about history or anything else. things are fine. corruption should't be stopped. you truly are a libertarian.

Why do you lie to yourself PH? What does it do for you to do that? Does it somehow make you feel importent or something? What is the point in believing in a lie that you have told yourself? You know good and well most of what you try to imply about me with your sarcastic questions and assumptions are untrue, so why do you do it? It is the same shit that you do with the government, you lie and exagerate until your message is meaningless. Is the truth not good enough to keep your arguement afloat? Your message is riddled with exagerations PH, and that is why you can not get certain people to believe you. It's not because everyone that thinks different then you is all for government tyranny, it's because of your willingness to spread false information that turns some people off of the rest of your message. You act as if it's ok to lie as long as you feel it is for a good cause. Your wrong about that one if that is what you think.

Toker

uhhh...sure. why not.