Date: July 1, 2025
For humanity, freedom is a high-end value, demanded by all, obtained partially by most and truly something to kill and die for.
For the average normal middle-class human right now, freedom could mean being financially independent with your own place to live. For a country, it's the right of internal self-determination; by that sense, a lot of countries aren't free. For a population, it could mean the right to express, act, and exist without hindrance. Another way to look at it, like Aristotle did, distinguishing citizens from slaves, is that the latter worked from necessity, unlike the free who did whatever they wanted and engaged in art, philosophy, and science, etc, Kinda elitist, imo but whatever. In religion, most faiths I think would consider freedom to be something you reach by rejecting whatever diverges you from the path that will save you. Like in Islam, the religion I'm most familiar with, there are many things that will qualify as a fake god, and you'll worship them in the sense you follow their will. Like the money god (this might've been influenced by Chainsaw Man), who will have you working like a dog day and night for a paycheck. So true freedom here would be to reject this fake god, and gamble on german third division football $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ beat him in his own game. Or don't anyways right now, in modern democracies, they are heavy on freedom, although used in the most hypocritical way possible. The theory is there: most organizations have endearing and captivating definitions for freedom, but their practice is the most twisted and inhumane, like we saw|seeing in many conflicts in the world right now. Anyways, I think freedom is also a fake god.