Awfully Free

Freedom! What a wonderful word, but try to define it and it may lose its glory.

Freedom is to be allowed to do what you want. Whatever you want! It’s as simple as that.

The more unbounded we are in our actions, the freer we are.

If nothing, absolute nothing, is in your way, you are completely free. If you are able to push everybody aside, if nothing prevents you from hurting others, if you are even permitted to kill, well, then you are absolutely free.

Oh no! Suddenly freedom doesn’t sound so beautiful anymore. But the logic is clear; absolute freedom knows no limits.

So then we should not be given complete freedom, right? A strange good it sure is, because its value doesn’t increase as its amount increases. For other glorious goods, like happiness and love, it’s safe to say that more is better, but freedom is not such a thing. It seems to reach a maximum at some point, and from then on, when more is added, it becomes an evil.

Therefore you must be careful when you cry freedom. You may be given too much.