what does freedom mean to you

im not looking for a legal definition or anything like that.
looking for what it means to each of you personally.

im asking because i have been struggling with this the past few days after participating in some of the threads.

i keep seeing people post things like

"you are free to do _____ but you will have to deal with the consequences"

that does not make sense to me.

for me, if i am free to do something it means i will continue to be free after i do it.
is that not what it means to you

someone posted to me saying you are free to murder your neighbor but you will have to face the consequences.
of course if you do that you should be in jail. obviously. fact is though you are not free to do that cause you will be imprisoned for it.

another post about a lady with a dui said "she was free to refuse a sobriety test but if she did things would have been worse"

how is that free to do it then?

of course i am not saying i want to do the things i mentioned.
we live in a free country. we are free to do as we please. of course that means within the laws of our society.

the opposite of freedom is imprisonment or enslavement.

if something you do causes you to be imprisoned or enslaved then you are not free to do it.
if you are free to do it then you would not be imprisoned for doing it.

thats how it works in my head. maybe i am way off so i figure i would ask.

so what is being free mean to you?

Freedom is going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning knowing your safe.

if you know what liberation feels like , that that is somewhere near to what freedom means or should mean

Of course , you'd have to have been locked up in some way to experience it .

might as well post the definition

the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

imprisoning me after i do something is a hindrance or restraint.

curious to all of your opinions on what it means to be free or have freedom.

To me, freedom is all the things I should be able to do, but can't.

Sit in my own home, and smoke a plant and grow it in my own yard.
Run naked in my backyard.
Have a fence as high as I want.
Build onto my house without a permit.
Have a fire in my own backyard without a permit.

Things like that.

originally posted by: chiefsmom
To me, freedom is all the things I should be able to do, but can't.

Sit in my own home, and smoke a plant and grow it in my own yard.
Run naked in my backyard.
Have a fence as high as I want.
Build onto my house without a permit.
Have a fire in my own backyard without a permit.

Things like that.

thats what it means to me to. that is my point.
sure you can enjoy that plant or build a high fence but once you do the imprisonment part comes to play.
so you really were not free to do it.

all the things you mentioned will land you in jail

i guess i dont understand the

"you are free enjoy that plant but you will have to face the consequences"

having to face consequences for it means you were not free to do it
imo

like you said free to do it but cant

seems like you think like i do on this matter

in my head(and seems like yours) you cant build that fence or enjoy that plant cause you will be imprisoned.

other people feel that you are free to do it even though you will be imprisoned.

i just dont get it

originally posted by: chiefsmom
To me, freedom is all the things I should be able to do, but can't.

Sit in my own home, and smoke a plant and grow it in my own yard.
Run naked in my backyard.
Have a fence as high as I want.
Build onto my house without a permit.
Have a fire in my own backyard without a permit.

Things like that.

You can do all of that (minus the weed growing) if you own your own house in the middle of nowhere.

you are free to jump out of aircraft naked - enjoy the consequences

www.abovetopsecret.com...

No wonder if you dont understand it , but this one of the est thread I ever saw on ats . Yet to read it all

a reply to: ignorant_ape

thanks for posting what it means to you

a reply to: DarkvsLight29

I could do it where I am too, but even if I did there, in the middle of nowhere, if the wrong person caught wind of it, I would be in trouble.

So that is not freedom.

@OP.
Maybe a very difficult question to pose, is what ISN'T there a law regarding?

Freedom means free will. The end choice is also yours and yours alone. It means accepting full responsibility for your actions.

"Get down on your knees and beg slave"
- "No"
"Then I will shoot you in the head"
- "Fine, go ahead"

Even when faced with death, the choice is yours. To either surrender your will and morals or choose the consequences imposed.

originally posted by: ZIPMATT
www.abovetopsecret.com...

No wonder if you dont understand it , but this one of the est thread I ever saw on ats . Yet to read it all

i saw the thread but didnt read it all.
not talking about free speech though like les posted about

i guess speech is part of it but im talking about freedom..les was posting about something specific and i didnt want to ask this question in an already long ass thread.

originally posted by: ClovenSky
Freedom means free will. The end choice is also yours and yours alone. It means accepting full responsibility for your actions.

.

interesting. thanks.
still struggling though

for example north korea is not a free country.
if they for example burn a picture of kim jong they are probably are going to be imprisoned if not killed.

in your opinion though they are free because they could make the choice?

if freedom is all about making a choice then every society that has ever existed on the planet has been a free society.
right?

i mean those ladies in iran that will get stoned to death for winking at a guy are free to do it?????

i guess the concept is beyond me

thanks to everyone so far for answering

To me freedom is to be able to take an idea and translate that abstraction into a something real and authentic. Perhaps beautiful or useful; without fools criticism of something they can't even understand. You know who you are....

a reply to: TinySickTears

But they still have free will don't they? It is an active choice not to rebel and just accept the current situation. But they still have the free will to either accept or change their current environment, even at the cost of death.

Your current situation/land/country/community does not hinder or help in your exercise of free will. That choice comes from within.

Freedom is essentially the ability to choose one's actions.

Ah, you're talking what you're ALLOWED to do , and that is not freedom , it's what you can and can't do by law .

There'll be a word for it , but not the word freedom . Liberty perhaps

People probably make tooo much out of the word freedom , not least the governments ...

a reply to: TinySickTears

freedom is being able to do anything that does not infringe upon the rights of others.

originally posted by: ZIPMATT
Ah, you're talking what you're ALLOWED to do , and that is not freedom , it's what you can and can't do by law .

There'll be a word for it , but not the word freedom . Liberty perhaps

People probably make tooo much out of the word freedom , not least the governments ...

yeah i guess so. i guess free was the wrong word.
i wasnt talking about free will though
imo freedom and free will are different

as i said according to that every society that has ever existed has been free.
every person on the planet has free will but every person is not free do do _______.

if thats the case why are we always told this is a free country?
if thats the case iran is free. north korea is free. nazi germany was free. russia is free.

those places dont scream freedom to me.

thanks for posting all.
apparently its just my screwed up definition/thought process.
im used to that though