If you were to ask an American what the country and constitution stood for, you’d probably get an immediate response. “Freedom!” But that wouldn’t be an entirely correct answer. You see, freedom is finite. It can be restricted by those who decide what it actually is in any given situation.
Liberty, on the other hand, is an individual’s right to decide for him or herself what freedoms to take advantage of with only the one restriction of not imposing or negating another person’s liberties.
Liberty is “do no harm.” Living one’s life with the capacity for anything so long as it doesn’t step on anyone else.
Freedom can have restrictions, or be limited to a specific event or group like a nation being freed from the clutches of a dictatorship, or a teen reaching the age where certain privileges become available.
Liberty, is about personal choice, and to exist, cannot be restricted.
“Restricted liberty” is not liberty at all, even though it could still be meted out in a Free Country.
So yes, you may have the freedom to tell me what you think I should do, or what system of beliefs I should follow. But I have the liberty to reject your feelings and demands and follow my own.
You then have the liberty to accept my decisions, and vice versa.
However in a society where freedom is prevelant over personal liberties, then the majority feels the superiority in numbers, and so tends to dictate what should be and what shouldn’t be.
And though one swept up in this “movement” might feel the freedom of belonging to a majority, that one should never forget the personal liberties put aside to sign up to it.
