Tracing the roots of freedom

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
- William Somerset Maugham

Freedom, in its broadest sense, means the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say or think whatever you want to without being controlled or limited. The concept embraces the freedom of thought, freedom from injustice, freedom of information and freedom of choice. There are freedom fighters who use violent methods to change governments or rulers. Then we have free enterprise in which private businesses compete with each other to sell goods or services to make a profit.

In democracies such as India and Sri Lanka, people live in a free country where the government does not control what people say or do for political reasons. In a democracy, people can express their opinions without any fear of punishment. This is in contrast to countries governed by despots or kings whose word is law. In the recent past Idi Amin and Polpott ruled their countries with an iron fist suppressing all democratic rights.

Pericles: We are a free government, but we obey the laws, more especially those which protect the oppressed and the unwritten laws which, if broken, bring shame.

There are many challenges to freedom in the Digital Age. However, the challenges have a sobering effect on the freedom we enjoy. Sometimes, it so happens that most of us do not know what to do with our freedom. If we do not make an attempt to protect the freedom, what happened to Greece will befall us.

Greeks

Greeks were the first to discover freedom, more than 2,500 years ago. Although there were great civilisations and empires prior to Greece came into prominence, they had no freedom. Egypt and Babylon were ruled by despots. The people had no say in the government. They were helpless masses led by a strong man or a group of powerful men. In Greece, however, there was no despot. The capital city Athens in Greece was ruled by the people. No one in the city aspired to be the leader. While great empires demanded unconditional obedience from their subjects, Athens had none of it. The people obeyed the law willingly.

The great Athenian statesman Pericles said, “We are a free government but we obey the laws, more especially those which protect the oppressed and the unwritten laws which, if broken, bring shame”. Although Athenians obeyed the written and unwritten laws willingly, this does not seem to work in modern democracies. If we allow the people to obey the laws willingly, it will have disastrous results.

The reason for the introduction of punishments for law breakers is that modern democracies unlike Athens, are heavily populated. With the population explosion, no government can rest assured of the people’s willingness to obey the laws. There are bound to be rabble-rousers and rebels who would upset the apple cart. Therefore, a modern democracy needs a benevolent ruler who is stern with law breakers.

Control

In the complex modern society, kindness, fair-play and obedience to the law cannot be expected from everybody. Therefore, some form of control and discipline is expected from every citizen. Even Athenians expected people to be self-controlled. They looked at their lives as their own private affairs. Each citizen was responsible for the welfare of Athens because the city was his pride.

Ancient Greeks discovered real freedom but they failed to sustain it for posterity. According to historians, Athens changed quite unnoticed by its citizens. Ancient Athenians never expected any material benefits from the government. However, over the years their attitudes changed. Instead of giving something to the state, they demanded benefits from it. Even today, people living in democracies expect everything from the government. They want free education, health facilities and old age pensions.

Today, we do not value self-dependence and responsibility for the common good. When this happens we cease to be a free nation. Although Athens lost freedom for ever, the world has not lost it. Modern democracies have managed to preserve some degree of freedom for the people despite extremist elements. All civilised people hope that freedom will be preserved even in the next millennium.