What exactly are "The Four Freedoms" and respond to one and how it effects you?

Answer 1

The Four Freedoms were a part of the political mission statement of the old League of Nations that formed after World War I, but it disbanded shortly before World War II, only to reform as the United Nations.

They are, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Faith, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. To elaborate:

Freedom of Speech means you get to say, in verbal speech and in print, what you want to say, without being punished or censored. It means that you can criticize public figures, especially political ones, openly and freely. It might be restrained a *little* to keep people from Lying (slander and libel laws), Inflicting Terror and Disorder (shouting "Fire" in a crowded movie theater), Openly Attacking People (partially covered in slander/libel laws, partially covered by letting people *bring lawsuits* against those who practice open stalking and/or humiliation), or Endangering Children and Innocents (removing profanities as needed in Public Media).

Still, the norm is supposed to be *freedom*, the norm is supposed to be that you *hear* what others have to say, and not that you don't. The situation has become imbalanced in that regard lately, at least in my life. To witness: censorship has ruined much of what I loved once about music and video games. And much of it is likely *illegal* censorship at that, since it's not the behavior of nations doing this, but rather the actions of *companies* acting in the *role* of nation-states, imposing Company Policies over Rule of Law.

To put it bluntly: Companies are not nations, and should not be able to disregard Rule of Law, not even on private property *within a nation's borders*. And, censorship to Protect Children and Innocents *needs* to be minimal and *well-defined*, so that the standard assumed is one of Responsible Adulthood in society. These days, censorship in media is none of these things.

Freedom of Faith means you have the right to believe in *any* God or Deity you see fit to....or none. It means you *can* worship as you see fit, but that you don't have to if you see fit not to. Most modern nation-states have the good sense to add in clauses that *protect* nations from those who would *abuse* faith to promote violent, over-throwing agendas, but for the most part, that sense of practical sanity is missing in the United States. Here, we *allow* fundamentalists of all faiths to *dictate* the agenda, and in the process, maintaining Public Order Against Crime suffers, Education suffers, Women's Rights suffer, and Science, Medicine (and their Further Advancement) suffers.

Meaning? We can't work properly on making the science behind psychology and mental health *work right* without the fundies interfering in some manner. If nothing else, the whole conservative notion of mental illness as *character flaw*, a Stigma that still prevails, has its origins in fundamentalist faiths beliving that the mentally ill were "possessed by demons", literally. There's been some forward progress for people with problems like me (with depression, for example), but it comes in fits and starts due to stigmas and failures to accept the science behind it all *as facts at face value*.

Freedom from Want is at once the simplest and most obviously *denied* of all of the Freedoms. What it means, simply, is that anyone who *wants to* work for a living and provide for themselves and be self-sufficient, should be *able to*. And it also means that those who cannot work for a living, from old age, orphaned childhood, disability or disease, should be allowed to provide for their needs *somehow* without having to destroy the dignity of their lives in the process.

It means we have enough *meaningful* work for everyone, it means people *can* become self-sufficient, and it means that people who don't work and *need* the social safety net to help them a) can get by on what they get, and b) aren't openly hated and attacked for not working.

Can you honestly look at the workplace as it is now, with its lack of labor rights, healthcare, job security, with its outsourcings, downsizings, and CEO power-mongering, and say there's *any* Freedom From Want here? Can you look at the decay of our educational, healthcare, and social welfare systems here in the United States and say the same?

If you can, you're a liar or a madman. >_< Either you have no clue what reality is like for ordinary people, or you just cannot be bothered to *care*. And odds are, you're likely going to be put *in charge* of things, *because of* your cluelessness and carelessness.

In a society with Freedom From Want, I'd be off of welfare, I'd be allowed to work full time and *maintain treatment* for my mental health issues, and I'd *be* self-sufficient already. There wouldn't be any of this garbage about HMOs this, income cliffing that, and dealing with minimum wage, zero-perk, dead-end Wal-Mart Plantation Labor.

And Freedom From Fear, simply means: no warfare, no massive amounts of violent crime in your backyard, no random acts of terror *on your mind*. It means you feel safe in your own home, from everyone: criminals, soldiers, governments, terrorists, *EVERYBODY*. Yes, even advertisers and bill collectors and solicitors.

Simply put, denying this Freedom makes the world go around these days. Things wouldn't *work* if ordinary people weren't *constantly* being bullied, browbeaten, cowed into silence, and generally harrassed and manipulated into, among other things:

--spending money on goods *right now*,
--supporting soldiers in an illegal invasion to satisfy the personal vendetta of an unelected wannabe tyrant,
--supporting a Big Oil Driven economy that's robbing them blind for the privilege of getting from Point A to Point B,
--supporting a political process that's been Sold To The Highest Company Bidders for some time now,
--supporting a police and legal system that caters to criminals, and not law-abiding citizens,
--supporting a non-native population or three of illegal, felon immigrants who exist mainly to deny citizens *jobs* and to let employers *continue* to treat poor workers *like dirt*,

And on and on....when you live in a society that thinks you're cattle, the predominant method of discourse becomes The Cattle Prod, Usually Electric. And yeah....the situation has me cynical and on the edge of paranoia. I know. What I *don't know* is....is it just me, or is it *justified* because times are That Damned Hard? O_O

So yeah....those are the Four Freedoms....

And they are all endangered to the brink of extinction, no surprise there.

Let me find a link for you, one moment.

Answer 2

GO TO LIBRARY AND ASK LIBRARIAN FOR BOOK ON FOUR FREEDOMS. YOU WILL THEN BE ABLE TO RELATE ONE OF THE FOUR TO YOURSELF AND PREPARE YOUR ANSWER. YOU WILL ALSO HAVE LEARNED HOW TO RESEARCH A PROJECT