Freedom

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So, tomorrow is 'Freedom Day®', as the gutter press would have it, (here in Wales, slightly less so, but we're OK with that) with the relaxation of Covid rules: I hesitate to say the final relaxation of said rules as I think that maybe the virus and its yet to be mutated cousins might have another agenda altogether.

Freedom is what we say we hold dear, cleave to and espouse - quite rightly - but exactly what do we understand the concept of freedom to be? Throwing off the shackles of enslavement, surely; beating back the artifice of social and gender boundaries, yes: but given the removal of constraints imposed by one group of humans over another, what results?

Liberty and libertarianism are two very different faces of the same coin. One supposes and expects freedom of opportunity, the other expects freedom from rules. Here lies the eternal rub of our species: freedom of expression, movement and ambition conflated with the freedom to exploit and control - I think anyone that knows me will know where I stand on this.

Those on the Right will always argue that they stand for freedom and liberty, and always end up demonstrating that they stand steadfastly for the contrary. Those on the extreme Left will argue that State control is the only way forward in protecting the citizen from the Right. Somewhere, there is a sweet spot - yet to be found - where rules are made and followed to the mutual good and gain of all. Sociopathy and greed go hand in hand with libertarianism; liberty is the freedom for all to be part of society: a completely different concept that we desperately need to adopt if any of the global problems facing the human race are to be tackled in anything like a timely fashion.

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