THE FREEDOM MISCONCEPTION
Freedom has to be at the top of the list of words that is used erroneously. People ramble on about freedom, protecting their freedoms etc. without truly understanding what the word even means. To make any case about any principle, people have to define that principle first so everyone fully understand what you are talking about and then go from there.
Freedom is a principle and people should understand its definition first before claiming that they have it. So let's look at how the word is defined. According to Merriam Webster dictionary, freedom is defined like this.
So when you look at the first two examples of the quality or state of being free, we see that it's defined as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action as well as independence, where you are liberated from slavery or restraint or from the power of another. So having established what the word freedom means, you can see how the word is misused continuously. Let’s make one thing clear right up front. Freedom is not allowed and always considered illegal!
"I love my freedom" - "land of the free" - "fighting for our freedom" - are common sayings that people say that are not correct, that is if you go by how the word is defined.
"I love my freedom." Almost no one on Earth is free. If you are a citizen of some nation, somewhere on Earth, which most people are, you are not free. Therefore do not have true freedom. There are countless example I could make but I will just choose one. You don't have freedom of movement. You need a passport to cross fictitious lines that governments have created, you need a driver's license to drive in most countries, and to acquire those you have to be granted permission by state officials. Officials that are completely illegitimate in the first place. So how can anyone say they are free to simply move around without obstruction?
"Land of the free!" This is the most ridiculous phrase ever uttered by a human being, yet millions fully believe this to be true. If you live in an area that has a government that uses violence to enforce their laws, you are not free and don't have freedom! U.S. citizens have been indoctrinated from birth into believing this is true. Sorry to say, it is not. There is no document, ritual, or process through which any group of people can delegate to someone else a right which no one in that group possesses in the first place. Everyone is a human being. No one is divine, therefore no one has any right that is above the rights of others.
Once you understand this, you then realize that all forms of governments are illegitimate. No human has the right to write laws on behalf of others. However every government has done this, no matter its form. As an example, I can't go out and write up an official looking document, have my friends sign it, come onto the steemit platform and say that now everyone here must pay me and my group 10% of your earnings in a form of a tax. If I did that, you would all laugh, it would not be taken seriously, you would consider me an extortionist and attempting to steal from individuals and ignore me. And that's exactly what you should do. However that is not what is done in the real world. Because in the real world they have laws, and enforcers, and that makes it legitimate right?
Most people don't even question authority, or where it comes from. When you analyze it, you are not taught to question authority, you are trained to obey authority. That's what schools are for and fundamentally that is what they teach. They teach you about hierarchy, chain of command, and the history of your country and government, which is usually some watered-down version. They don't teach whether it is legitimate or not.
"Fighting for our freedom" is a phrase that I totally despise. How can you fight for something that you don't have? You are trained to think you are free; that doesn't mean you are. As Goethe point out in his famous quote, people that believe this phrase are hopelessly enslave. The U.S. constitution was written by a group of terrorists (which is what they would be considered today) that disobeyed and fought an "illegitimate" master at the time, the king of England, and won. Then what happened? They turned around and wrote the constitution, which is the law of the land, which they had no right to write. Just like I don't have a right to write a document to steal money from people on this platform. They weren't gods, they were mere mortals like all of us. However that document has been revered as sacrosanct and followed by many as if it were divinty. So how can one go fight for something you don't have, freedom? You can't.
Governments aren't legitimate, they actually don't exist because it is abstract in nature. You can't touch government. We are simply referring to people who represent an idea that they have a monopoly on the use of force to obey their commands in a geographical area made up by fictitious boundaries. The clever trick is getting people to believe that they have a say in controlling what happens in the government by voting. Voting implies that there is consent by the people. If you vote, you are consenting to a ruling class. That's why in "free" societies it's always encouraged to get out and vote, make your voice heard. Unfortunately, most people look at it that way. In the end, all you are doing is voting for what you hope is a nicer master! When will people realize this, probably never; because after all, who would build the roads?
Image Sources: https://imgsafe.org/image/18f0263144
https://imgsafe.org/image/18dcd489f6