2006-06-20 17:51:06 · 26 answers · asked by calmliest 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
good question. Its amazing how many people cite the american revolution as an example of the need to pay for freedom with blood and violence, yet many other british colonies that obtained freedom without a war (eg canada, australia, new zealand, ireland, india) are just as free today as we are, if not more so.
Freedom, as you imply with the question, is a natural state. It is only through conquest, coercion, and invasion that freedom is lost. I think that freedom is in fact a dangerous word today - used as rhetoric by many but with no real understanding of what it means.
2006-06-20 18:33:31 · answer #1 · answered by student_of_life 6 · 8⤊ 4⤋
Well, think of it this way. Being free is a state of mind. Having freedom is a state of being.
Any state of being will have it's costs.
The important thing we must really remember is that the US Revolutionary War was not about freedom, it was like most wars, about something more sinister. The fact that rich, educated men were tired of their profits being cut into by a King that was not giving them their fair due. Remember that 1/3 of the country was against the revolution, 1/3 on the fence not caring and only 1/3 actually wishing to succed from England.
Now Ghandi's fight, Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight were about freedom. The state of being free. To achieve this they gave their lives. People gave their homes, others their children. In the universe all things have value. Maybe not tangible, but value none the less. If something has value when it is purchased, exchanged or destroyed it cost something.
That is why they say freedom isn't free. Someone always ends up paying for it, one way or another.
2006-06-21 01:23:48 · answer #2 · answered by ClaytonMScott 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think they say that meaning that we have to fight for a lot of our rights. We can't just be free without sacrificing something else, probably because of our inability to be responsible for ourselves these days. It's kind of like with wars. You're fighting for your freedom, but even if you win that freedom it wasn't free. You lost lives and all those kinds of things.
Basically, freedom doesn't just come to people. It's kind of like they have to deserve it and work for it. People have to show they are capable of having freedom and not abusing it (because we all know that too much freedom can cause problems sometimes, agreed?) That also comes to a point of why freedom isn't really free: We do things out of freedom but, since we are enjoying the freedom and not necessarily worrying about effects, we might cause damage to ourselves or our society in other ways that we don't see at that moment.
It can be interpreted probably a billion ways, I wish I knew where the quote originated, but that's just my take on it.
2006-06-21 00:57:00 · answer #3 · answered by TelleyJade 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People have fought and died for freedom since the beginning of time. America was born in a bloody revolution against a much more powerful nation. Since then, many thousands have died to protect that freedom....World War II is a prime example.
2006-06-21 00:56:35 · answer #4 · answered by fade0246 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The sticker conveys wrong message. Believe me freedom is a state of mind. You can feel imprisoned even if one day you happen to become the President of America... So FEEL FREE
2006-06-21 01:16:56 · answer #5 · answered by Gr8 Gy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Take for example, United States is known as the country of freedom, but it is not like that. You have to pay for your freedom. If you do not pay for your taxes Uncle Sam will come and get you. Get it? Nothing is free.
2006-06-21 01:07:13 · answer #6 · answered by Jenny 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I disagree. Freedom of your mind is free. You can reach that now at this very moment that includes the desire to be free also. If there is a slightest desire in your mind, to reach heaven, see god, become desireless etc, you are not free. But, to reach there, you have to loose everything you think as yours(that is what people say costly). But, once you reach that at least knowledge level, you will realise what you have lost is not even worth a penny.
2006-06-21 02:15:29 · answer #7 · answered by r_govardhanam 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People have given their lives fighting for our freedom. A life is worth a lot. We need to be thanking each and every brave solider that has risked their life so we can be free in the US.
2006-06-21 00:57:03 · answer #8 · answered by tickle me 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only a person who has never had to fight for their family, for the survival of their country and against evil would ask such a question.
That is a good thing, because it means we have had such long periods of peace that generations now have no idea of the price of freedom.
Take a few minutes to read any history book, or look at any global summary of current affairs and you should be able to answer your own question pretty quickly.
2006-06-21 04:03:41 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ahh... but do we really have freedom if we continuously have to fight for it? Don't we just become slaves of the battle for a freedom we can't truly enjoy?
After all, you may be free to not fight for freedom... but you wouldn't have freedom for very much longer.
2006-06-21 03:46:48 · answer #10 · answered by smokingun 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
—Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
—Thomas Paine
The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
2006-06-21 01:08:33 · answer #11 · answered by sparkalittlefire 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋