November 9th, marked the 20th year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a date symbolizing freedom. Many a world leader have thumped their chest and equated that to its political sense, the ability of people to choose their leaders in a democratic form.
Democracy = Freedom
It is borne out of a thought which sees billions of people, having different forms of governance as being “un-free”. That is a modern day version of the cry of Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”
That statement can be expanded to mean that Freedom is inherent to humanity, but what is Freedom? Philosophically it can be defined as the ability to make your own choices, political, economic and social, without constraint or being held up by others. The emphasis on the political aspect of freedom “freedom to” often overlooks the economic aspect of freedom, or the “freedom from” (hunger, poverty).
It is often accepted that two of the great revolutions of the 18th century, “The American War of Independence” and the “French Revolution” were about political freedom, the unshackling of political bonds. However what is not associated is that “freedom” in the economic sense was at the root of the big picture of political freedom.
Would the American Declaration of Independence with the profound words of “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” have been possible without the war cry of “No Taxation without Representation”? That famously meant “"taxation without representation is tyranny." Similarly would “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen", at the end of the French Revolution been possible, if it were not for “Let them eat Cake”.
Would the “Magna Carta” or the great charter of Freedoms, been possible if it were not for the desire of the Barons to preserve their privileges and limit the power of the King? Even the “Bill of Rights 1689” enacted by the English Parliament, had a basic principle which was “Freedom from taxation by Royal Prerogative”.
Would the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, have been possible without the weakening of the Communist states due to economic malaise? Would Solidarity have been possible in Poland, without the desire from the “Freedom From”? If Poland had not been weakened by the Solidarity movement in the early 1980’s, the Berlin Wall may never have fallen.
From the signing of the Magna Carta on June 15th, 1215, to the fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November 1989, the breast thumping cry of Freedom, equated to the political sense wrongly colors the basic Economic Reality, freedom from hunger and poverty. Many a big political leader today would be better served by the following words of Abraham Lincoln:
“Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it”
Democracy = Freedom
It is borne out of a thought which sees billions of people, having different forms of governance as being “un-free”. That is a modern day version of the cry of Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”
That statement can be expanded to mean that Freedom is inherent to humanity, but what is Freedom? Philosophically it can be defined as the ability to make your own choices, political, economic and social, without constraint or being held up by others. The emphasis on the political aspect of freedom “freedom to” often overlooks the economic aspect of freedom, or the “freedom from” (hunger, poverty).
It is often accepted that two of the great revolutions of the 18th century, “The American War of Independence” and the “French Revolution” were about political freedom, the unshackling of political bonds. However what is not associated is that “freedom” in the economic sense was at the root of the big picture of political freedom.
Would the American Declaration of Independence with the profound words of “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” have been possible without the war cry of “No Taxation without Representation”? That famously meant “"taxation without representation is tyranny." Similarly would “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen", at the end of the French Revolution been possible, if it were not for “Let them eat Cake”.
Would the “Magna Carta” or the great charter of Freedoms, been possible if it were not for the desire of the Barons to preserve their privileges and limit the power of the King? Even the “Bill of Rights 1689” enacted by the English Parliament, had a basic principle which was “Freedom from taxation by Royal Prerogative”.
Would the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, have been possible without the weakening of the Communist states due to economic malaise? Would Solidarity have been possible in Poland, without the desire from the “Freedom From”? If Poland had not been weakened by the Solidarity movement in the early 1980’s, the Berlin Wall may never have fallen.
From the signing of the Magna Carta on June 15th, 1215, to the fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November 1989, the breast thumping cry of Freedom, equated to the political sense wrongly colors the basic Economic Reality, freedom from hunger and poverty. Many a big political leader today would be better served by the following words of Abraham Lincoln:
“Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it”
1 comment:
Sunil,
Having just finished reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins and "Wealth and Democracy" by Kevin Philips, it seems that economic reality is not so much forgotten as it is ignored. In an economic sense, the vast majority of East Germans did not get economic freedom from the reunification of Germany, they just exchanged one kind of state-sponsored economic slavery for another kind of state-sponsored economic slavery. Instead of being enslaved by the DDR's form of communism, they will be enslaved, like most of us in the U.S., by a "free market" plutocracy, those wealthy individuals and corporations who hold the power in much of the West. In this sense, concepts like "freedom" or "democracy" are irrelevant and are superseded by the more fundamental reality that humans seem to have an innate drive to dominate others, be it by military or economic means.
With respect to the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the subsequent American Revolution, mounting historical evidence indicates that many of the key figures, including most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, were motivated at least as much by a prosaic desire to have wealth equal to or greater than the British elites as they were by any abstract notion of "freedom of blah, blah, blah...". Before that War, the most wealthy people in the American colonies were roughly 10-times poorer than an average British aristocrat and they clearly didn't like that. By establishing their own government on these shores, the Revolutionary War promised the quickest means of achieving the desired wealth (i.e. maximizing short term profitability in today's language). After the War, these individuals profited extraordinarily, whereas the labor class did not see an equivalent benefit. Hmmm, starting a war in a region so that economic elites can increase their economic gains, sound familiar?
Rick Wobbe
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