Can freedom ever be taken away?

Question

I am reasoning that freedom is

"the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint."

Crime is, by this definition, an act of free will. A "crime" does not have to be murder; a crime could be tying you shoes if the government decreed it. If you physically can do something, and someone else says not to do it, couldn't you still do it? Even in movies like "The Purge," where the government says that crime is legal, there is no difference in the number of crimes, they're just concentrated. Even where action is limited by government, government is free to act, so freedom still exists for them?

People in the news say how their freedoms are being taken away, but I think that freedom, by definition, can never be taken away. Otherwise, people couldn't break law, America wouldn't have formed, and the Bastille wouldn't have been stormed. Given freedom of will is considered intrinsic to humans, is a human without free will logically impossible?

Answer 1

You define freedom as "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint." That last clause is very important. If a law is created that makes it more difficult to preform an action, then the freedom of the citizens has been decreased since now hindrances and/or restraints exist.

I understand what you are getting at. Most laws take the form 'If [insert action], then [insert consequence].'

• If you commit murder, then you go to jail.
• If you practice a certain religion, then you are killed.
• If you try to communicate anti-government ideas, then you will be exiled.

You can argue that laws like these do not decrease freedom because consequences, which by definition must happen after the action, do not make it more difficult to preform the action. However, there are laws which do make it more difficult to preform an action, usually by targeting intention or materials required for the action.

• If a government official believes you intend to commit murder, then he can put you in handcuffs.
• If a government official finds items necessary to preform certain religious activities, then they are destroyed.
• If you intend to publish a book, then a government official must edit all anti-government ideas from it first.

Answer 2

Freedom cannot be taken away. Freedom is inherent in the exercise human will, which is a function of the subjective mind, so (short of physical or psychological damage to the mind) one has freedom as a necessary part of existence.

That being said, liberty can be taken away. Liberty is a social function where the human will can be exercised within and through the collective structures, resources, and opportunities provided by the surrounding people in society. If society decides that no one should tie shoes, society can deprive willful shoe-tying people of the opportunity to tie shoes (placing them in shoe jail), of shoes that are capable of being tied (by mandating that all shoes be slip-ons), or of shoe laces that might be tied (by prohibiting the manufacture of importation of laces). People with the will still have the freedom to make or obtain their own lace-up shoes, but society takes away the liberty of easy access.