What Is Freedom?
Tags: Freedom, Coronavirus, Masks, Politics

If there is an issue that blue and red individuals differ upon most, it is a shared definition of freedom. My hope, in this piece, is to propose several components of freedom. My belief is that most of these will find support from a large majority of the population. This common ground could provide the foundation upon which a meaningful dialogue between blue and red could exist.

That being said, there is a group which believes that any interference by the state, with the exception of guaranteeing property rights, is a violation of individual freedom. These individuals feel like they can do whatever they like whenever they like. This attitude of a complete rejection of any external authority has an irrational basis in something we have all lived through. At around the age of 2, all children begin to recognize that their parents have control over some of their behavior. Often, they don’t like it and whine and moan about their status. However, in nearly all cases, the child “matures” and comes to accept certain rules.

For example, running into the street without pausing and checking for traffic is a learned skill that has only benefits and no costs for the child that learns it. Similarly, wearing masks during this pandemic has substantial benefits with zero costs. For those that would say that there is a cost and the price is their freedom, please read on. Just like the 2-yr. old, you have an underdeveloped notion of freedom. We will call this type of freedom, simplistic freedom. The counter-point to this conception is simply this: with freedom comes responsibility.

Typically, when we think of freedom, we think of freedom of. Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion to name just a few. Everyone knows and accepts that a person should not yell “fire!” in a crowded movie theater. This wide limit on freedom of speech is to protect those around us who might, under false pretense, be trampled to death in a stampede. This serves to inform us that, with freedom, comes a responsibility to others.

What is interesting about the masking and freedom debate is that, in refusing to mask, supporters of simplistic freedom are not just causing potential harm to others (like the person who cries “fire!”). But they are causing even more harm to themselves and those they care about. Data collected from NPR on the 2020 election shows a strong correlation between two variables: the % increase in Trump’s share of the vote when compared with 2016 in each county in the USA and the mortality rate due to COVID in these same counties. The higher the positive change in Trump’s vote share, the higher the mortality rate. This self-destructive element of simplistic freedom deserves a full fleshing out from a social psychologist, but I would only begin the discussion with saying that this action is the result of a repressed rage. Here’s why:

If I were white, and I was suffering under an umbrella of failed outcomes: lower income, less education, larger waistlines, etc., I would have a difficult time not blaming myself since there is and has never been any discrimination against whites. Rather than consciously accepting that I have failed to construct a life for myself, I inflict damage upon myself and those around me. Not wearing masks is first of all like cutting or when a person deliberately hurts themselves by scratching or cutting their body with a sharp object. However, failure to wear a mask is also like cutting others. No one would support the right to cut others! In this modern world political affiliation is often a litmus test for friendship: like will hang out with like. Super-spreader events will not only infect simplistic freedom advocates, but they will harm many of their friends as well.

So, the destructive paradox of those with a simplistic sense of freedom is not only masochistic, but it also has a counterpart in a sadism which infects their relationships with others. These relationships are complex and I won’t go further into them here, but I will add, at this point that there is an alternative view of freedom. It is called freedom from and it has a strong proponent in Erich Fromm in his work, Escape From Freedom (1941).

Fromm begins his discussion of freedom with freedom to. By this he simply means the ability to make individualized choices. He emphasizes the key moment in the establishment of freedom comes about when Adam eats from the apple in the Garden of Eden. Adam, rebelled against the will of God, but in the process, he ate from the “tree of knowledge.” Freedom to act (eating the apple) is intricately connected with the faculty of reason. At the same time, Adam became free from the instinctual determination of his actions. By eating from the apple, man entered a world where freedom, choice, and thinking became central to existence. In the red state conception of freedom, the conjunction of freedom to act with the use of reason is broken. A more nuanced version of freedom goes something like this: you are free to do whatever you wish, so long as you think it through and you determine that you are not hurting others in the process.

Before winding up, I’d like to go back to our discussion of freedom of. We said two things: 1) these freedoms are central to the meaning of freedom; and 2) there are limits on these freedoms when others could be harmed. In a slight digression from Fromm, I would like to define my own freedom from.

John Maynard Keynes, in 1930, predicted that, by the end of the 20th century, man would be working 15 hours per week. He was able to make this projection because he saw the growth rate of economic productivity and the extent to which, with a better distribution system, goods and services could be allocated more evenly and efficiently. Just imagine how true freedom could blossom if the following were integrated into all of our lives. Here is my freedom from list (a partial one at that):

Freedom from hunger;

Freedom from NOT having health insurance;

Freedom from oppression;

Freedom from homelessness;

Freedom from untruths;

Freedom from bullying …

This is freedom. Let’s wear our masks and let freedom ring!