The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

Aspects of Freedom

The Core Freedoms

The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941. In an address known as The Four Freedoms Speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union Address), he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "Everywhere In The World" ought to enjoy:

1. Freedom Of Speech
2. Freedom Of Worship
3. Freedom From Want
4. Freedom From Fear

My Article, “The Four Freedoms”, discusses these Freedoms and their implications for the governance of a people. Regrettably, I believe that these Four Freedoms are an insufficient aspect of freedom, as, by themselves, they do not assure the Liberties and Freedoms of the people. Indeed, it is possible to institute these freedoms by negatively impacting other freedoms. The question is, then, what are the core freedoms that allow for Liberty and Freedom for all? Professor J. Rufus Fears, in his Great Course, “A History of Freedom”, concludes this course with a summary of what constitutes core freedoms. These constituents are:

1. National Freedom
2. Individual Freedom
3. Economic Freedom
4. Scientific Freedom
5. Spiritual Freedom

When these core freedoms are present in a nation, then you have true Liberty and Freedom for the people of the nation. A brief explanation of the core freedoms will illuminate this conclusion.

National Freedom

National Freedom is the ability of a national people to govern themselves, under laws created by themselves, for the benefit of all their people, and to institute Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All for the people of a nation. This implies that you have regular free and fair elections in which the people choose their leaders. It also implies that the leaders cannot be above the law and that the leaders govern within the law. These laws must be just and equally applied, and they must be respectful of the Natural Rights of the individual to be just.

Individual Freedom

Individual Freedom is the ability to choose how to live your life so long as you do not harm another nor infringe upon the Liberties and Freedoms of others. This entails that the government protects and does not infringe on the Natural Rights of the people. The Natural Rights to choice in thought, speech, publication, assembly, petitioning, and the bearing of arms and ammunition, along with other Natural Rights that restrict government actions against an individual are essential to constrain a government to ensure individual freedoms.

Economic Freedom

The Economic Freedom of a free-market economy and the economic opportunity to participate in the free market are necessary to ensure the freedoms of the people, as otherwise, the government becomes involved in the economy and restricts the choices of both the producers and the consumers in the economy. These governmental restrictions often lead to a stagnant economy and many times lead to a recession or depression. Limiting or restricting the opportunity of people to engage in a free-market economy, either as a producer or consumer, infringes upon the Natural Right to Freedom of Choice. Often these limits or restrictions are not direct but come in the form of laws, rules, and regulations that are burdensome to the individuals or businesses that engage in the free-market economy.

Scientific Freedom

Scientific Freedom to seek out the scientific facts and determine the truths of our universe, often to the benefit of all mankind. The facts and truths of science are critical to the functioning of our modern scientific world. Any hampering of the discovery or the disavowal of these facts and truths harms the body politic and constricts the Liberties and Freedoms of those individuals and groups that engage in these activities. Any society that constricts scientific freedom faces the prospect of an exodus of those persons or groups engaging in scientific discoveries, leading to a decaying of their economy and culture from the loss of these persons or groups. Any society that does not recognize these facts and truths is doomed to failure, as no society can function without acknowledging and incorporating these scientific facts and truths in its governance.

Spiritual Freedom

Spiritual Freedom to practice your religion and to worship God, as well as the freedom to follow your own conscience. Whenever a society institutes the establishment of a religion, or prohibits the free exercise thereof, or restricts members of the clergy or congregational leaders from speaking on issues of public concern and political matters, or compels any commercial activity that would contravene an individual’s religious beliefs, they lessen the Spiritual Freedom of their society. Whenever a society does not allow a person to speak or act based upon their conscience, they can only enforce this prohibition through despotism.

Loss of Core Freedoms

History is replete with societies striving to obtain these core freedoms and collapsing if they fail to obtain these core freedoms, as well as collapsing after they achieve these core freedoms by constricting these core freedoms. In all cases, after the collapse, the people suffered economic and political breakdowns to the detriment of their lives. Freedoms disappeared, and totalitarianism, dictatorialness, or despotism arose in and after the collapse.

Consequently, all these five aspects of freedom must be equally present for a society to be truly free. The constriction or the elimination of any one of these aspects of freedoms makes for an unfree society. Recent American history has seen an erosion of these core freedoms under the guise of achieving the ‘Greater Good’, as I Chirped on “12/07/22 The Greater Good”. The invocation of the Greater Good is often a call to despotism that erodes these core freedoms, which leads to a collapse. Therefore, Americans need to be protective of these core freedoms to ensure the continuation of our free society.