A friend and I were recently talking about this thing called freedom.
Just a few thoughts came to mind as we were discussing this notion. The traditional wisdom texts discuss freedom and references in buddhist literature and christian literature abound,
But from the secular socio-political standpoint "freedom" is a relatively "new" notion.
We tend to forget that if one takes the long view and looks at the evolution of human history the establishment of slavery in antiguity, not to mention more recently and even currently still in parts of the world, indentured servants, serfs, the caste system etc were operative long before the relatively modern notion of freedom.
One can argue perhaps convincingly that freedom was a topic in ancient Athens. but I think most folks would agree that freedom as a political notion is really a rather modern and recent idea exemplified by the French revolution , The Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta.
Let me quickly add that certainly even just 60 or 70 years ago the Germans and the Italians attempted to impose their notion of freedom for some and lack of freedom for others in rather brutal ways. The invasion of Ethiopia , World War 11 and let me throw in the Chinese experiment under the leadership of Mao certainly provide additional opportunities to reflect on this notion of freedom.
Even the post colonial African independence period illustrates that " freedom" might be a precious commodity and not universally dispensed but available to those that could "afford" it.
Could it be that this idea of freedom continues to be like most mythologies and philosophies just another mental construct for debate and an on going historical experimentation ?
( Senator Obama's recent speech in Germany (below) perhaps illustrates how new , uncertain and fragile this baby notion of freedom is - for like a new baby it is still trying to find its way and to grow amongst the competing influences of subjugation)
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