@sagescrub has asked the question, what does freedom mean to you? and challenged us to answer it. Oddly enough this is something that has been on my own mind of late, so now I have the chance to put my thoughts into words.
At one point the idea of freedom would have been a simple as running free across a meadow, but now I feel it's a bit more complex than that.
For me freedom is the ability to choose how you live without interference from others, but also without interfering with others freedoms. So freedom does not mean that I get to demand whatever I want from others, while they have to put aside their freedoms to provide for my whims.
Freedom is the ability to choose whether you want to live in a society and obey the rules of that society in return for any benefits that might be offered, or to choose to opt out of that society knowing that you don't have to follow the rules, but you also waive the benefits.
Freedom is the ability to travel without restriction, as long as you cause no harm where you go. It is the ability to do what you wish, as long as it doesn't infringe on anyone else's freedom to do what they wish and as long you are prepared to deal with the consequences of your choices.
Freedom is not a free pass to do what you want, but rather the responsibility to make your own decisions. Freedom is having the ability to self govern, but also the ability to let others govern you if you so choose.
The truth is, many people choose a society, because it makes them feel safe and when someone wants to opt out of that, they will resist it. Whether out of fear that people opting out will break the system or out of jealousy because they see that those opting out don't have to follow the rules, also realising that they don't want to give up the benefits themselves to be able to opt out. Or maybe even because they can't comprehend why someone would want to opt out. Unfortunately this attitude infringes upon the freedoms of those few who do want to opt out. However, while those trying to opt out fight for their freedoms, they also need to remember that they mustn’t infringe upon the freedoms of others to choose the system if they wish. They too will have to deal with any consequences of their own choices if things don't work out how they hoped.
