Independence Day is a favorite holiday of mine. Usually it means a long weekend at the lake, rice krispie bars with M&M's, and of course, fireworks. This time, it means more time to study for the bar. Oh well.
For me, this raises an interesting and timely question: what value does freedom have without content? This is a rephrasing of an issue that has become classic fodder for those who have just graduated from their terminal degree without a clear next step. See, e.g., The Graduate. My freedom under the Constitution and the law is vast, so long as I pay my debts and take care not to injure others or unduly interfere with their freedoms. Furthermore, I am at one of those unusual points in life where my ties to any particular location and direction are at their lowest ebb on a number of dimensions. That is to say, I have substantial freedom now to go most anywhere, and do most anything. I just lack a reason to do so.
I see two forms of freedom at work here, both of which sound hollow when knocked. First is my freedom of personal direction; that is, the present large set of substantive choices available to me. This freedom comes directly at the expense of content. It diminishes to the extent I am involved and attached in the place I am and the activities I pursue. To say I am free in this sense just cuts with the other side of the knife. If I were doing something worthwhile, and if I knew the purpose of my work, I wouldn't care about the freedom to do something else.
Second is the freedom from excessive external societal restraints, enshrined in law, which is a huge part of what we celebrate today, along with getting through that little tiff with England, I suppose. As a (pragmatic federalist) libertarian, maximum personal freedom along every dimension is at the core of my political beliefs. As applied for me today, however, these freedoms are a virtual nullity. Yes, I'll be using my 14th Amendment privileges and immunities of citizenship when I travel to Philadelphia later this month. When I do make it to the lake, the government can't take my skis (let alone the cabin) for a non-public purpose, nor without just compensation. Even this blog post is 1st Amendment protected speech.
Fine. I'm under a big constitutional umbrella, but it's not raining. Not on me, anyway. My point is that the freedoms from external restraint are only important when you are trying to do something worthwhile. I have no use for 14th Amendment fundamental privacy rights; I'm not married. I have no use for 4th Amendment security in my papers and effects; I have nothing worth hiding. I have little use for the Article IV privileges and immunities of citizenship; I don't know what I want to do when I grow up (that is, on August 16th, when I return from post-bar travel (including to bars in other places, no doubt)). The great constitutional freedoms don't keep me safe, they just keep me from being hassled. For me, there is no content of significance at the moment, and therefore nothing gained by protecting it.
Today, I'm just in a holding pattern, with maximum freedom and minimum use for it. My Independence Day resolution is to make my civil freedoms matter again.
Freedom without...contentment?
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the former freedoms, it seems to me they're not all that useful. Freedom from entanglements means estrangement. Flourishing requires being part of an ecosystem, dependent on and supporting others.
With regard to the second freedoms, I wonder how much we really do have them. The preservation of these freedoms requires the constant defense of those who really need them against those who are supposed to guarantee them but who would do so against their interests. As you say most of us live in the middle space where it doesn't really matter if we have them or not because we're not doing anything that could be called dissent.
For instance, I often think about the Internet revenue model which is built on consumers either ignorant or undervaluing of their privacy. For the most part we have no security or privacy, but for the most part we don't care. Our security is the same security as a wildebeest's from a herd of lions: the chances that the lions will go for you are pretty slim.
To be sure, the civic freedoms we enjoy are far broader than those in many countries, and that really is worth celebrating. I am very thankful for the freedom to go to Church, say. But: are we doing with our freedoms what those in oppressive governments fear their subjects would do with the same? If they were taken away from us, would we notice? I think these are questions it is our duty as Americans to answer.