Freedom
Freedom. Our holiest word as Americans. Unfortunately, like other holy words, this one has been debased. Biblically, freedom is double-edged. Freedom from whatever hinders or constrains us from doing what we should and freedom for doing that which we should. By the time we reach America that notion of freedom was in the process of thinning out. The freedom for -aspect was fading as modernity pushed us to an ever-greater individualism and an early communitarianism faded. In our time, freedom seems to mean freedom from whatever hinders or constrains us from doing what we want and freedom for has morphed into freedom to do what we want. The transition from should to want marks the reduction to the one-dimensional view that reigns supreme and inviolable today: freedom from whatever hinders or constrains us from doing what we want. This is clear in the gun-debate. Those who oppose any restrictions on gun ownership are on the side of the angels – our attenuated version of freedom. ...