Our modern ideas about freedom were captured in 1966 by the Oscar-winning lyrics to “Born Free”: “Born free, as free as the wind blows / As free as the grass grows / Born free to follow your heart / Born free, and life is worth living / But only worth living / ‘cause you're born free.”ĭo you hear sacrifice or commonality in this depiction of freedom? I don’t.ĭon Kahle writes a column each Friday for The Register-Guard and archives past columns at say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the starlight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Jefferson agreed: “It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case others.” Thomas Paine echoed the pact that had won the Revolutionary War: “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the law permits does not seem satisfactory.” John Adams wrote, “I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by. Likewise, liberty no longer means what it meant to Jefferson and his ilk. Now we strive endlessly for more and more private bliss. Society grew strong when those circles were chained together. Those limits created circles that defined our communities. Eudaemonia did not require endless barn raisings or limitless sugar sharing. When happiness included obligations, it was self-limiting.
We’ve forgotten this: Everyone’s happier when everyone’s happy.
You participated in your neighbor’s barn raising so he would join yours. Sharing a cup of sugar with someone in need benefited your future sugarless self. The enlightenment ideal of happiness was rooted in the classical Greek concept of “eudaemonia.” Collective striving - the pursuit - aimed to achieve a common good.
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