Concluding Thoughts On Liberty And Freedom (Liberty Lite)
Liberty Lite: Exploring the differences and similarities between liberty and freedom
My fellow Patriots,
As I bring this mini series to a close, I hope these concluding thoughts impact you and leave you with things to consider.
As I bring this short blog series on liberty and freedom to a close, I want to take time to see whether the modern and common understanding of the definition of liberty and freedom, as being the same idea, is good or bad for those who would like to preserve either freedom or liberty.
Since liberty and freedom are now being considered one and the same, there has been increasing confusion among the advocates of both as to what the other believes in. Does the person believe in absolute freedom or do they believe in moral restrictions to that freedom? As someone who interacts with people online almost everyday who are on both sides of the issue, I see that there is a growing divide based on a semi-false unity. The growing divide is not even being seen by everyone, since most people don’t interact on a regular basis with both types of people and therefore when the divide grows too large, there is the potential for massive online disagreements and associative breakups.
If any movement wants to be successful, there needs to be unity; more specifically, unity around the core issue. If both sides are using freedom and liberty interchangeable, but meaning different ideas than each other, there is not unity around the core issue; there is actually a more dangerous underlying divide that could fracture the progress made by the surface unity for decades to come.
If people who want liberty and freedom want to be successful in their common beliefs and also successful in their distinct beliefs, both sides need to start using each term in their historically accurate definitions. If communication is to be had, with both sides understanding each other, they need to begin to speak with words that mean the same thing to both sides. Go back to the historically accurate terms: liberty involves moral restrictions, while freedom has no restrictions.