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…
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…
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
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).
Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. While a Webster dictionary provides a sound definition to this most coveted of words, it is by no means universal. While one person may define freedom as their accessibility to a clean source of fresh drinking water, another may define freedom as a having a stable wi-fi connection. In the context of the world during the second world war, there were at least three men, James Yates, Tadeusz Borowski, and Adolf Hitler, who each had their own understanding of the word, “freedom-” Yates, that of solidarity, Borowski, that of freedom’s nonexistence, and Hitler, that of racial superiority.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Many believe that freedom is being able to do and say whatever you'd like without consequences. In ways this may be true but, when we say or do things that are against rules or that challenge society we might find ourselves in trouble. But if we don't challenge society or anything else for that matter we find ourselves stuck without change. Leading to the idea that the true meaning of freedom is being able to speak up for what you believe in; Whether it results in punishment or not. If that's what you believe in then preach it all you want. Our government might have the authority to take away our freedom by locking us away or finding another form of punishment. We find that freedom is a recurring theme in our MyPerspective
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.
How does one define freedom? The OED gives about a dozen useful definitions that each pertain to one of a variety of the aspects of the human state. One referred specifically to the political freedoms of an individual: “Exemption from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic control; independence; civil liberty” (def. 2). Another definition concerned the spiritual freedom found in Christianity: “fig. Liberation from the bondage of sin” (def. 1.b). There was another that defined freedom as “Physics. Capability of motion. degree of freedom: an independent mode in which a body may be displaced” (def. 10.a). The word liberty was used in one of the preceding examples and it is virtually interchangeable with freedom. In fact, the OED definition of liberty contains a number of the same definitions that freedom does. Obviously,since humanity is capable to being free in so many different ways it is difficult to come up with one definition of freedom. Milton addresses the freedom of the mind; God gives man the freedom of choice; Donne mentions spiritual freedom found from faith in God; Mary Wroth discusses the lack of freedom in love. Each of these writers used their ideas of freedom to make a point about how people are affected by freedom.
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.