The Issue of Freedom.

Essay by jeffreytsaiUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, April 2003

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The Issue of Freedom

Freedom has been a rallying cry for reformers and revolutionaries throughout human history, and it is too important to be ignored. Freedom has various definitions according to different individuals and times. Nevertheless, freedom involves the inhibition of war through social order, and individual choice, as well as the liberation of the independent spirit.

Freedom can make war avoidable. From the Stone Age to the Atomic Age, human kind has been fighting against anything which is an obstacles by using swords, shields, and, now, hydrogen and nuclear bombs, with seriously destructive power and influence. Warmongers are convinced that wars bring them peace, comfort, and freedom, in spite of their trampling down others' existence and independence, which those victims have struggled for through time, patience, and effort. Those who in power positions yearn for initial war, which brings them much prosperity either through more property or greater power and respect, are more concerned with their individual freedom; winning satisfies and meets their definition of freedom: Might creates the liberty of choice for them.

Nevertheless, there is no freedom in war because of the absence of a choice to regret for those caught in the struggle. Those who regard a war as a means to a material end are misled by their own desire since their freedom, established by stepping on others' corpses, is valueless and useless because they cannot define themselves and be pleased without the sacrifice of others; an oppressor cannot exist without the oppressed, and the powerful cannot exist without people to take that power from. Warmongers' individual freedom mutually depends on the social freedom, or lack thereof, of other groups. "An injustice committed towards an individual is an injustice committed towards all people" (Jacobus 181-197). A person's loss of a single freedom is the...