“How do we know we wouldn’t be free without war? And, are we REALLY free?  Someone define Freedom for me…”

My friend Ashley posted this earlier and I was tempted to just reply back with a cocky Team America answer:

“Freedom isn’t free, it costs a hefty fuckin’ fee. And if you don’t pitch in your buck o’five who will?”

But these are questions Americans take for granted every day, and they deserve answers.  So what is freedom?  In the philosophical sense, freedom can mean many things.  It can be as complicated as free will, or it can simply mean a “lack of restraint.”  Smarter men than I have been debating free will for centuries, and regardless of how long I sit and ponder in my current, drunken state, I’m not going to break any new ground on the topic.  The brief explanation is this: modern science says we aren’t free in the strongest sense of the word. Our actions can be boiled down to complex chemical reactions, seemingly infinite repetitions of cause-and-effect.  It’s hard to argue that we’re free in this sense; but it feels like we are, and that’s enough for the average man.

So what about lack of restraint? We live in a country with strong federal, state, and local governments, all imposing upon us their own set of laws; not to mention the social mores one’s own race, religion, ethnicity, or political party.  No one is above the law in this country, except of course those powerful enough to change them. Those of us footing the bill for the government have the privilege of having our every move legislated and limited by law. So do we live with a lack of restraint? Fuck no.

In our country, we define freedom by the rights our constitution (and it’s amendments) guarantee us.  Having said that, you can use the United States Constitution to determine if we would be free without war; at the very least you can prove that we would be “more free” and “less restricted.”  Look at the wartime history of the United States: wartime internment camps and suspension of habeas corpus are classic examples. Today, just look at the choices our government has made post 9/11 to limit and violate constitutionally guaranteed rights.  I don’t need to list them, just read the news. Warrantless wiretapping, the federal Real ID Act (an RFID tracking chip in every pocket), and the Patriot Act are just a few examples of how the current administration have exploited our fears to further their own power and their own agendas; and unfortunately we’ve validated terrorist tactics by allowing them to do so.

So to answer your question: not only do I think we can be free without war, I don’t think mankind can ever be free to pursue individual happiness so long as we are continue to wage it.