2. Human Freedom and the Danger of Its Devaluation

Freedom: Everyone’s Birthright With all of us, whatever our worldview, freedom ranks among the highest of our ideals. Freedom, we feel, is every human being’s birthright: no one has the right to deprive us of it against our will (except, of course, in cases of proven criminality). Even to attempt to remove someone’s freedom is a crime against the essential dignity of what it means to be human. Actually, in the practicalities of life there are situations where we all voluntarily surrender some of our personal freedom for the sake of some common good. We do so in small matters like, say, football (soccer). On the field ten of the players agree to submit to the directions of the captain, and all eleven agree to play according to the rules of the game under the authority of the referee. No player claims the freedom to play according to his own rules: no game would be possible under such conditions. Likewise we voluntarily surrender part of our personal freedom in more important contexts. As citizens of a civilised state, for instance, we voluntarily (in theory, at least) forego part of our freedom as individuals, as do all our fellow-citizens, and submit to the laws of the land for the...