What does freedom mean to you?

What does “FREEDOM” mean to you? And do you believe it has disadvantages or limitations?

• Today "Freedom" is a very popular catch word. Our politicians use the word often. Many of the people who use Yahoo Answers use it often. But what do people really mean when they use the word? Are we just talking about the "freedoms" guaranteed to us as “rights” in our political documents (e.g. the bill of rights), or are we talking about some other underline aspect of our cultures? Does capitalism make us free? Or does it make us servants of the marketplace? Do you like the way the word is used? For example, President Bush will say that the reason why terrorists attack us is because they hate freedom. Are we truly free in the West? Is true freedom more profound then politics? Is the word FREEDOM being misused or even abused? Are our freedoms being abused, and if so, who are threatening them? Is freedom an entitlement or is it a responsibility? Is it our responsibility to impose freedom on others? If we spread freedom, do we expect other cultures to change?

• Answer:

  Good question (all of them). I don't believe that anyone is truly "free". We all conform to something or other. Marketplace, social etiquette's, beliefs of religion, and all the biases we have subconsciously accepted from a life time of media and other external influences like friends and family. I live in Canada and we have recently made same sex marriages legal. It has caused a lot of controversy within the country. Many take a moral or religious approach to the subject, but I see it as a social development towards our continued struggle to live in a free nation. Will we as humans ever "be free"? I doubt it, but I think that the goal of all people in all societies ought to be to continue to re-evaluate and to strive to continue to develop what it means to have freedom in our countries. Freedom (what ever it is exactly) ought to be for all people regardless of sex, heritage, colour, religious belief, and now in Canada and 2 other countries in the world, sexual orientation. Freedom to the individual is whatever they were brought up believing freedom is. "Terrorists most likely believe that the West hates what they consider to be freedom." It's all a matter of perception.