Freedom Is Not the Ability to Do Something

Friedrich A. Hayek defines liberty at the beginning of The Constitution of Liberty as follows:

“The state in which coercion of some by others is reduced as much as is possible in society” — The Constitution of Liberty

This is quite different from the common definition of “freedom.” The left has deliberately muddied the meaning of freedom. They use freedom in a sense limited to politics, especially elections or political power, or they use freedom as if it were the ability to do something.

Political freedom is, in fact, a meaningless combination of words. Democracy (indeed, even the word democracy is a troublesome term that invites misunderstanding) is of no help in realizing genuine liberty. In Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and even 21st-century Communist China, people were politically free. There is no backward country that does not guarantee political freedom, at least on the surface. In reality, what matters more than who exercises political power is how it is exercised and to what extent, but the left deliberately ignores this.

Now consider freedom as ability, another misuse. A phrase like “a country where one is free to buy and eat bread at any time” is nothing more than the verbal garbage bin of the sophists of ancient China. If language is used properly, it should be used as the opposite of “a country where one cannot buy bread even with money.”

The definition of liberty cannot help but appear negative, because it is impossible to predict perfectly what an individual will be able to do with freedom—not only to others, but even to his past self.

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Bench Press

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Original title: 자유는 무언가 할 수 있는 능력이 아니다

Author: Jayujuui Ipmun Dokseotoronmoim

Date: 2023-06-21

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=2&idx=25805