Timothy Snyder is great on this. In his book On Freedom, he distinguishes between positive and negative freedom: freedom to, and freedom from.
When personal philosophy or public politics begins with positive freedom, it puts values at the centre of consideration and provokes us to move towards them in order to realise them. Snyder calls freedom from a trap that “involves self-deception, contains no program for its own realization, and offers opportunities to tyrants.” Negative freedom is a problem because it affects the liberties of a country’s citizens. He notes a particular irony of the so-called land of the free. America emphasises freedom from, but Americans are far from being among the freest peoples of the world in the twenty-first century. The present drama of the United States is one in which autocracy threatens democracy, tyranny threatens freedom.
I write about this more here if anyone is interested in reading more 👇👍🙏
This is a great article. This understanding is truly missing from the younger generation in the US.
I think it is noteworthy to point at the Old Testament story of Exodus as it very much talks about that. The story of Passover, in its deeper layer, is this wisdom.
Thank you for writing this. A.S. is a man worth listening to. I see that we all serve something, even if it's only ourselves, and the choice of what or whom wel serve is free will, not freedom. I see freedom in choosing to serve the Highest, or Ultimate Truth - God. But it is a serving. It is still a kind of submission. Yet a submission to the Highest of all good, truth, and beauty, has the effect of a ever-increasing capacity for those same qualities. That is as I see it, an ever-increasing freedom. So my serving, you could even call it "slavery", is the means of my release, my growth, my strengthening. Who and what will I serve? Who or what is worthy? Those are questions worth thinking over.
He was ALWAYS a Russian Orthodox Nationalist who hated women, gays, and anyone who wasn't a White Slavic Russian like himself. He would have loved Putin and he would have approved of invading Ukraine.
If the atheist Stalin hadn't suppressed most churches, Solzhenitzyn would have been his strongest supporter.
100% correct. In the Machiavellian tradition… Liberty means freedom from the arbitrary coercion or oppression of a ruling class but ALSO a political order durable enough to prevent such coercion. Namely, through laws, institutions, and an active citizenry that can resist rulers.
I hear echos of this in modern debates about agency and mimetic desire.
Many people think maximizing agency is about developing the most options and the capacities to be able to execute them. And while of course, there is some truth to that, there is an alternative view that escaping society’s dictates represents true agency. This is often framed as resisting or being impervious to mimetic desire and matters of status for status sake.
Every time I consider this question, I'm reminded of the phenomenal book The Unbearable Lightness of Being because it's also about a man who contemplates whether freedom from burden is actually beneficial to humanity.
I love Substack, it seems to bring some of the best content. So much good reading, thoughtful stuff. Knowing our place in the universe our purpose for existence is paramount to a healthy life. As I was reading through the Bible I started again on Proverbs. That wisdom cries out through God’s Creation is incredible, the mountains, the pathways. I had never really thought about it before but what stuck me is how God has build into the world boundaries and within those boundaries is God’s goodness and beauty setting limits for His creation, you can go no higher than the highest mountain no lower than the deepest ocean. I have spent almost twenty year working on a small acreage and it takes a life time of learning to grow something good in the desert. We all have limits and I’m running out of time. But the God of Creation is outside of the limits He has set and His love endures forever, so I will press on in my small efforts in my limited way to make the surrounding around me better more beautiful, good and true for the glory of God, and hopefully read and discuss some good books to enrich my life.
Reminds me of a certain Christian theocracy… ‘There is more than one kind of freedom," said Aunt Lydia. "Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from.’
“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile." — Plato
There is no freedom until we have freedom from the tyranny of our fleshly desires.
Yes. Plato makes this clear in his Gorgias where the tyrant is a man to be pitied, he is not free. He is a slave to his baser appetites.
Your essay is sublime. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Excellent. I make a habit every day of reading posts from you and other excellent writers. I am learning.
Thanks!
I lived in Russia, so I may have things to say on this topic in the future! : )
Timothy Snyder is great on this. In his book On Freedom, he distinguishes between positive and negative freedom: freedom to, and freedom from.
When personal philosophy or public politics begins with positive freedom, it puts values at the centre of consideration and provokes us to move towards them in order to realise them. Snyder calls freedom from a trap that “involves self-deception, contains no program for its own realization, and offers opportunities to tyrants.” Negative freedom is a problem because it affects the liberties of a country’s citizens. He notes a particular irony of the so-called land of the free. America emphasises freedom from, but Americans are far from being among the freest peoples of the world in the twenty-first century. The present drama of the United States is one in which autocracy threatens democracy, tyranny threatens freedom.
I write about this more here if anyone is interested in reading more 👇👍🙏
https://makingsentences.substack.com/p/public-gratitude-04-on-freedom?r=26i8bq&utm_medium=ios
This is a great article. This understanding is truly missing from the younger generation in the US.
I think it is noteworthy to point at the Old Testament story of Exodus as it very much talks about that. The story of Passover, in its deeper layer, is this wisdom.
Very good.
Thank you for writing this. A.S. is a man worth listening to. I see that we all serve something, even if it's only ourselves, and the choice of what or whom wel serve is free will, not freedom. I see freedom in choosing to serve the Highest, or Ultimate Truth - God. But it is a serving. It is still a kind of submission. Yet a submission to the Highest of all good, truth, and beauty, has the effect of a ever-increasing capacity for those same qualities. That is as I see it, an ever-increasing freedom. So my serving, you could even call it "slavery", is the means of my release, my growth, my strengthening. Who and what will I serve? Who or what is worthy? Those are questions worth thinking over.
He was ALWAYS a Russian Orthodox Nationalist who hated women, gays, and anyone who wasn't a White Slavic Russian like himself. He would have loved Putin and he would have approved of invading Ukraine.
If the atheist Stalin hadn't suppressed most churches, Solzhenitzyn would have been his strongest supporter.
Fair point. Freedom is not the presence of choice but the absence of coercion.
100% correct. In the Machiavellian tradition… Liberty means freedom from the arbitrary coercion or oppression of a ruling class but ALSO a political order durable enough to prevent such coercion. Namely, through laws, institutions, and an active citizenry that can resist rulers.
Freedom means choosing the moral good. The Enlightenment Period with its vast wealth of writings and art strove to inform us that this was the path.
"Liberty isn't the freedom to do what you want, but what you ought."
Forget the source.
Disagree that the liberty afforded in the American Union necessarily leads to license.
"Discipline equals Freedom." -Jocko Willink
Very interesting!
I hear echos of this in modern debates about agency and mimetic desire.
Many people think maximizing agency is about developing the most options and the capacities to be able to execute them. And while of course, there is some truth to that, there is an alternative view that escaping society’s dictates represents true agency. This is often framed as resisting or being impervious to mimetic desire and matters of status for status sake.
Every time I consider this question, I'm reminded of the phenomenal book The Unbearable Lightness of Being because it's also about a man who contemplates whether freedom from burden is actually beneficial to humanity.
I love Substack, it seems to bring some of the best content. So much good reading, thoughtful stuff. Knowing our place in the universe our purpose for existence is paramount to a healthy life. As I was reading through the Bible I started again on Proverbs. That wisdom cries out through God’s Creation is incredible, the mountains, the pathways. I had never really thought about it before but what stuck me is how God has build into the world boundaries and within those boundaries is God’s goodness and beauty setting limits for His creation, you can go no higher than the highest mountain no lower than the deepest ocean. I have spent almost twenty year working on a small acreage and it takes a life time of learning to grow something good in the desert. We all have limits and I’m running out of time. But the God of Creation is outside of the limits He has set and His love endures forever, so I will press on in my small efforts in my limited way to make the surrounding around me better more beautiful, good and true for the glory of God, and hopefully read and discuss some good books to enrich my life.
Reminds me of a certain Christian theocracy… ‘There is more than one kind of freedom," said Aunt Lydia. "Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from.’