NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm wondering how many of you share my thoughts on freedom. I keep seeing commercials on TV talking about honoring the men and women who died to give us our freedom, and I think to myself...

If my freedom costs me a son or a brother or a father, isn't the price too dear? I'd rather not be free, if I have to sacrifice them for it. I don't think anything gives me the right to ask it of anyone else, either. Isn't the line about these men and women dying for our freedom really an appeal to our selfishness? Isn't it really to get our approval for a war, so long as someone else's son is doing the dying for us? I'd find a way to live without freedom, so long as I could do it with the people I love. That's freedom enough for me. IF, and only IF it came down to the probability of them dying either way, would I volunteer with them to save all of us. It just doesn't seem like any of the wars men and women have been dying in have been under anything like those circumstances.

The problem is, no one has been able to give me a proper solid definition of what 'freedom' is when it's used in that sense. It's just turned into a buzzword like 'terrorist'.

The problem is, no one has been able to give me a proper solid definition of what 'freedom' is when it's used in that sense. It's just turned into a buzzword like 'terrorist'.


Not to forget that the so-called "Land of the Free" has less freedom to offer then a good number of other, more humble nations. Think Scandinavia for example.

And the big fuss that's being made over the treat of terrorism when you are more likely to get hit by lightning is very telling in that it tells us that the fools who fell for it are either braindead or simply living with their head up their ass. Of course it is equally possible that they are very much aware of the travesty of the situation, ruining the economy and sending people off to die for a cause that cannot be reached by going about it in the way that they do, but do so because they and their buddies are making big bucks of the situation and simply don't care about the price that is being paid by those who are doing the actual fighting. Et cetera, et cetera.

I don't believe that life is too high a price for freedom- as long as you're fighting for your freedom. I suppose there is the exception- like US in WWII when we weren't directly fighting for our freedom (though it might have reached that point eventually)
I don't, however, think lives should be wasted where they don't belong- like the US in Vietnam and now in Iraq...
the fact is, the Iraqis really don't want us fighting for their freedom-most don't want the same freedom we have...we shouldn't force it on them- especially since it won't last...

As a very clever sign I saw on my college campus last year said "Support our troops- bring them home!"

I don't believe that life is too high a price for freedom- as long as you're fighting for your freedom. I suppose there is the exception- like US in WWII when we weren't directly fighting for our freedom

No, they were fighting for communism. Deliver the whole of Eastern Europe to the USSR - another victory for freedom! Good work, Grandad.

No, they were fighting for communism. Deliver the whole of Eastern Europe to the USSR - another victory for freedom! Good work, Grandad.

Yeah right. When Berlin fell we should have turned on the Soviets and fought until only one side survived.

Here is my definition of Freedom

Freedom: The right to go almost any were you please. The right to have a say in what your government does. Your right to look at anything weather it be porn, Sifi, Cartoons, historical Documentaries and ect. The right to live(as long as you didnt kill or rape any one) The right to own property no matter who you are. The right to free speach. The right to knowlege. The right to privacy(to a point) The right to a fair trial.
We have rights that many nations either dont have or dont care they have it until its gone. I have the freedom to do what ever I want (once I hit 18) I would do anything to defend my freedom, freinds, and family. I would defend it until my body was a cold hard corps. I look at nations suc as north Korea were people do not have many rights. Their minds a poluted with outrages propoganda and at china where people are arrested for speaking there mind and Middle east countries were women have about as many rights as a pet. Many countries do have more freedoms I dont dout about that but how many people who live there actually charish it? How many people realize that one day it could be gone?

The problem is, no one has been able to give me a proper solid definition of what 'freedom' is when it's used in that sense. It's just turned into a buzzword like 'terrorist'.

VERY good point.

Here is my definition of Freedom

Freedom: The right to go almost any were you please. The right to have a say in what your government does. Your right to look at anything weather it be porn, Sifi, Cartoons, historical Documentaries and ect. The right to live(as long as you didnt kill or rape any one) The right to own property no matter who you are. The right to free speach. The right to knowlege. The right to privacy(to a point) The right to a fair trial.
We have rights that many nations either dont have or dont care they have it until its gone. I have the freedom to do what ever I want (once I hit 18) I would do anything to defend my freedom, freinds, and family. I would defend it until my body was a cold hard corps. I look at nations suc as north Korea were people do not have many rights. Their minds a poluted with outrages propoganda and at china where people are arrested for speaking there mind and Middle east countries were women have about as many rights as a pet. Many countries do have more freedoms I dont dout about that but how many people who live there actually charish it? How many people realize that one day it could be gone?

Very nice post Dragoneia! I agree with you on this. Freedom is cherished here otherwise, we wouldn't have half the controversial crap if we didn't! I don't agree with alot of what people say but in this country, they have the right to say what they are saying. I may not like it but they are just exercising their freedoms.

Yeah right. When Berlin fell we should have turned on the Soviets and fought until only one side survived.
Why were they fighting at all?

To liberate Poland? Hmmm, no. It would seem not.

To save the Jews? Ooops. They died anyway.

To end imperialism? By siding with the British....

To fight a dictator? By allying with the only dictator who's worse than him?

No. It was to preserve the British Empire by eliminating imperial Germany. Of course, it completely backfired. Eastern Europe was turned into a totalitarian nightmare and a war weary British public voted for anti-imperialist Labour. As Churchill later said, "we slaughtered the wrong pig". Of course, he was wrong on this too.

Britain and France and the US should never have declared war on Germany. They should have let the Nazis and Commies fight it out until they were both sick of it. Japan wouldn't have attacked Pearl Harbour if FDR hadn't deliberately provoked them to in order to stir up the US public for war.

End result: Britain and US remain free and prosperous, socialism wouldn't have received it's impetus from the war and Fascism and Communism would be buried. Perfect.

End result: Britain and US remain free and prosperous, socialism wouldn't have received it's impetus from the war and Fascism and Communism would be buried. Perfect.

What about the Jews? While I realize the US didn't do them much good, if the war dragged on long enough, wouldn't more have died?

Here is my definition of Freedom

Freedom: The right to go almost any were you please. The right to have a say in what your government does.

I don't think we really have a say in what the government does, even if sometimes they let us think we do. The fact is, by the time most of us get around to voting, it's past the local level and into the national one. Besides, we can't really go anywhere we please. You'd get a file on yourself if you decided to go to Cuba, and you might get killed if you wandered into Saudi Arabia, purely by dint of being American.


Your right to look at anything weather it be porn, Sifi, Cartoons, historical Documentaries and ect.

The US has a powerful censorship machine, and you'd better believe it.

The right to live(as long as you didnt kill or rape any one)

The right to own property no matter who you are. Most of us can't own property. Not that there's a law against it, but because it is priced out of our reach. The most land most of us will ever own is that which we are buried on.

The right to free speach. The right to knowlege. The right to privacy(to a point) The right to a fair trial. The first amendment is being eroded every day. High school students are being refused a diploma on the basis of their VALEDICTORIAN graduation speech. Public libraries don't carry some things, due to censorship. High school libraries are even worse on this point. We are only really taught what will make us better workers. The justice system is flawed, but I can't really think of a better system, so we'll let that be.


We have rights that many nations either dont have or dont care they have it until its gone.

We surrender our freedoms willingly, or simply by attrition. We don't defend them at home, what can our soldiers do someplace else, giving their lives for something WE don't value?

I have the freedom to do what ever I want (once I hit 18) No, you can't. You can only do whatever you want if you can afford it, in terms of time or money.

I would do anything to defend my freedom, freinds, and family. I would defend it until my body was a cold hard corpse.

What good will your freedom do you when you're dead? Will your family enjoy it, even if they value your efforts, without you to share it with them?

I look at nations suc as north Korea were people do not have many rights. Their minds a poluted with outrages propoganda and at china where people are arrested for speaking there mind and Middle east countries were women have about as many rights as a pet. Many countries do have more freedoms I dont dout about that but how many people who live there actually charish it? How many people realize that one day it could be gone?

We should cherish our freedoms and do more to protect them here.