We love feeling free.
Western national anthems often proclaim their people’s status as free: the USA as the ‘land of the free’; in Australia, ‘we are one and free’; and the Brits see their isle as the ‘home of the brave and free’.¹
But, what does the word free mean to us in a purportedly free society?
When I think about how we use the word free these days, I see images like going on a long drive, ideally in a sports car, with the wind tousling your hair.
I wonder, what exactly do we celebrate being free from now?
And I wonder, what happened to the prepositions that should go with that word. Free from what? Free of what? Free to do³ what? And... free in order to achieve what?
What can those strangely absent prepositions tell us about the contemporary meaning of free?
A definition of what it is NOT
Here are the first eight (of 15) definitions of free (my italics added):
♦️ not costing or charging anything
Free Thought and Official Propaganda, 1922,
reviewed by Brain Pickings
♦️ having the legal and political rights of a citizen; enjoying political independence from outside domination; not subject to the control or domination of another
♦️ not determined by anything beyond its own nature or being; choosing or capable of choosing for itself; made, done, or given voluntarily or spontaneously♦️ relieved from or lacking something and especially something unpleasant or burdensome; not bound, confined, or detained by force
♦️ having no trade restrictions; not subject to government regulation; not subject to restriction or official control
♦️ having no obligations or commitments
♦️ having a scope not restricted by qualification
♦️ not obstructed, restricted, or impeded; not being used or occupied; not hampered or restricted in its normal operation
The common word across all these definitions of free is not or no. What free is not. This is atypical of formal definitions, as the purpose of a definition is to clarify what something IS, rather than what it IS NOT.
So, free is unusual: its very definition refers to what is NOT there, what it IS NOT.
As Bertrand Russell said, the meaning of the word free requires the prepositions from or of to convey what exactly it is free from or free of.
But first, prepositions for people and things
The two prepositional forms free from and free of have slightly different meanings and uses.
The phrase free from means ‘liberated from; no longer oppressed by; no longer fettered by’, and tends to apply to people (but not always): Nigeria recently celebrated 60 years of being free from colonial rule; she was finally free from his controlling behaviour; under the new law, gay people were free from (of) persecution.
In contrast, free of means ‘clear of; untainted by; without’ and tends to apply to things (but not always): The road is free of ice, the office is free of (from) clutter, the first drink is free of charge.
This n-gram⁴ by Sven Yargs compares the number of occurrences of free of and free from from 1800 to 2007.
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| N-gram source: Sven Yargs, 2013 |
The n-gram shows the considerable decrease in the prepositional form free from and the increase in the prepositional form free of. Another n-gram shows the phrase free of charge has become much more common since 1920, which accounts for much of the increase in free of in the last 100 years.
If free from generally applies to people, the n-gram demonstrates that we're much less likely to talk about what makes us free as people and why that is important.
We’re free to achieve what?
I think that is because in Western culture, we think that being free is good of itself. We see being free as a goal shared by all humanity.
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We do talk a lot about what we are free to do… to travel and move anywhere, to leave unpleasant situations (e.g. marriages), to speak our mind, to choose our own spouse, to vote out a government, to dye our hair green, to carry a gun (in the US), to buy whatever we want, and much more.
The contemporary idea of being free is being able to make our own decisions, and to follow our own desires and inclinations.
But our celebration of being free doesn't include why that is good thing.
I think another preposition seems to be missing - free in order to achieve what? What can we achieve with all this freedom (not too much when you are dead, obviously)?
I want to explore the concept free through what I consider some essential prepositions: free from, free to and free in order to.
Because I think that in the absence of those prepositions, the word free has become almost meaningless (and sometimes appalling.)
Many people have written about the concept of freedom and why it is important. What follows is a ludicrously short history of these ideas.
Free from sin to be virtuous in order to achieve salvation
In the writing of Plato, being free was achieving self-mastery: humans should strive to be free from their base desires and urges (gluttony, avarice, sloth, etc.). This was important in order to develop virtues and good character and to focus on the pursuit of the Good, only possible when freed from the tyranny of their own desires.
Plato's ideal of self-development was integrated into Western religions to become the ideal of self-denial: dogma overtly sought to constrain behaviour to free humanity from sin in order to achieve virtue and salvation.
So, summarised with a prepositional emphasis:
♦️ free from base desires and urges/sin♦️ free to develop good character and virtue♦️ free in order to achieve the Good/salvation with god.
Some contemporary religions continue to contend that genuine personal freedom only comes from submitting completely to god.
However, Western culture rejects any idea of submission as a lack of freedom, such is the conviction that being free is inherently good. Some call to prevent free expression of such religions (e.g. Islam) in a sort of ‘unfree counter-unfreeness’.⁵
Free from social restrictions to do what one desires in order to foster a pluralist society
In the seventeenth century, a new ideology that prioritised personal freedom emerged – Liberalism.⁶
John Stuart Mill, the father of Liberalism, recognised the threats from the powerful, but he saw the greater threat to personal freedom in the social pressure to conform in behaviour and thought.
Mill’s definition of freedom is found in the notes and examples in his foundational text for liberalism: On Liberty. For example, he notes that preventing a person from crossing a damaged bridge is no infringement of his liberty, 'for liberty consists in doing what one desires, and he does not desire to fall into the river.'
However, being free ‘to do what one desires’ was not an invitation to do anything at all. Mill wrote extensively that the purpose of being free was to engage genuinely with other people, to live a personally enriching life and to foster a pluralistic and inclusive society. ⁷
With the prepositional emphasis, liberalism can be summarised as:
♦️ free from oppression and the requirement to adhere to social uniformity and rigid thinking♦️ free to have broad and genuine engagement with diverse people and ideas♦️ free in order to foster a society based on the principle of pluralism.
The ideology of Liberalism promotes the idea that being free is good, not of itself, but for what it allows us to achieve.
A contemporary anthem: Free to do whatever I want… any old time
At various times, people have pushed against the social pressures to confirm in behaviour and thought as Mill championed.
We can see this in the 1960s: a celebration of breaking free from social gender rules of the past, free from the consequences of fertility and sex, free from the rules and restrictions of conservatism and religion.⁹
And the contemporary anthem of the times came from the Rolling Stones: I'm free... to do whatever I want, any old time. (If the video does not play, click here.) The song was fabulously covered by The Soup Dragons in 2018 - yes, it's still our anthem.
So, what do we think we are free from these days?
With the prepositions, we celebrate being:
♦️ free from responsibility and restraints on behaviour♦️ free to do whatever we want (any old time)♦️ free in order to achieve...?
Free from any external intervention to do whatever I want in order to be free
With recent convulsions in their democratic system, the Americans have been proclaiming more loudly than ever that they live in the 'land of the free'.⁸
In terms of the prepositions, this means:
♦️ free from government interference in my life♦️ free to do anything we want (pursue happiness, I guess)♦️ free in order to ... um... be free?
Sure, it’s good to be free from oppression and tyranny, but resisting all government help, support and protection in the name of being free just looks self-defeating.
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Being free is good, so more freedom is better
Like any ideology, Liberalism comes with benefits and with costs. The benefits include safeguards for personal freedom, but the cost, according to some, is our current existential crisis. What is life for??
For example, Patrick Deneen in his book, Why Liberalism Failed, contends that contemporary Western liberalism is almost aimless: there is nothing much to be believe in, and nothing much to fight for except the never-ending expansion of personal freedom.
Bereft of its original purpose as envisaged by Mill, Liberalism can only offer an unhappy or angsting populace more freedom, more liberalism.
After all: Everybody's free (to feel good), right Rozalla? (If the video doesn't play, click here.)
Because being free is inherently good, if you’re unhappy, it must be because you’re not free (enough).
A free prize for every player
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| At the Same Time, reviewed by BrainPickings |
Being free in Western societies seems to have morphed into what Susan Sontag calls 'the cult of the individual in the service of capitalism'.
Sontag suggests 'the celebrated 'land of the free' may have come to mean little more than the right to the perpetual aggrandisement of the self, and the freedom to shop, to acquire, to use up, to consume, to render obsolete'.
Free choice and 20 brands of toilet paper
When I stand in front of the supermarket toilet paper section, I feel overwhelmed. Isn't being free, and having free choice, supposed to feel good?
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While free choice is touted as a good aspect of capitalist society, shelves and shelves of ‘free choice’ are a distraction, a dead end. There is no purpose to ‘free choice’. Just more free choice and more consumption.
Let’s replace those missing prepositions:
♦️ free from responsibility for the planet's finite resources and the people who work in horrendous conditions to satisfy my endless consumption♦️ free to consume and to waste♦️ free in order to fill up my aimless life.
♦️ free from responsibility but not free from advertising’s subtle manipulation of my vulnerabilities♦️ free to choose the loo paper with purple fleur-de-lis♦️ free in order to create the appearance that I am a happy homemaker with continental good taste.
Now what else should I buy?
Free speech and saying whatever we want
The original concept of free (good) + speech (good) was being able to speak about politics without government persecution: free from government persecution, free to express your political ideas, free in order to ensure your participation in society of diverse ideas.
However, free speech is now a somewhat mushy concept; a common understanding being that we can say whatever we want, any old time.
When I see people using their legal right to free speech to defend their hateful or degrading comments, I tend to think, you want to be free from consequences, free to say whatever you want, in order to make yourself feel tougher or better than others.
They ignore Mill’s important idea that personal liberty also entails not limiting someone else’s freedom, except in some clearly identified cases. (Interestingly, in Australia and the USA, one of the limits to free speech is where it is necessary to ensure public health. The mask burners didn’t seem to notice; too busy being free.)
In addition free (good) + speech (good) is used by some people (especially powerful people) as a cover for making self-serving and misleading statements.
With the replaced prepositions, this type of misuse of free speech becomes:
♦️ free from responsibility to ensure what i say is accurate, logical and causes no harm♦️ free to say whatever I want♦️ free in order to reinforce the power structures that i benefit from.
The claim ‘I’m entitled to my opinion’ under the protection of free speech often hides beliefs that would be abandoned if we valued logic, accuracy and mutual respect as much as being free.
If we thought more about what free speech exists in order to achieve.
Can the prepositions help with our angst?
I won't continue with examples of Western society’s empty concept free; you get the idea. The word is meaningless, just like a life lived with being free as its only aim.
Those essential prepositions force some meaning back into the word.
Firstly, the word free always needs the preposition from to highlight what we are free from, as well as NOT free from.
Our various celebrations of being free could salute being free from constraint, oppression, occupation, punishment, commitment, shackles, cost, pressure, pain, binding, regulation, control, obligations, restrictions, occupation, fastening, confinement, worries, etc.
However, we can never be free from being human, and can be only temporarily free from our social roles and responsibility (like on a road trip¹º). We can never be free from consequences, responsibility, impact, effect, logic, validity/truth, accountability, shame, vulnerability, reality, etc. We are also rarely free from capitalism’s manipulations.
Secondly, the word free also always need the prepositions that signal what we are free in order to achieve.
This points out that, while it is good to be free from oppression and tyranny, being free is a capacity, it’s not a goal itself.
Historically, human thought about being free has always focused on it purpose - in order to form a good character, develop one’s self, get closer to god, create a pluralistic and diverse or equal society. But that focus on the purpose has disappeared. (If anything, in contrast to Plato's idea that we should strive to be free from our own 'base' desires and urges, our contemporary idea is that we should be free to indulge those same desires.)
With the essential prepositions replaced, I can see that - for me - being free from oppression and social restriction is a desirable and previously hard-won capacity, I am free to choose thoughtfully what I do in my life and my relationships, in order to create a full and satisfying life, and make the world better, perhaps free from oppression for other people.
What is it for you?The free prepositional template
If we add the essential, but missing prepositions, we start to see beyond the empty halo of ‘good’ implied by the word free.
My prepositional template is: I am free from [name the constraint], free to [name the action], free in order to achieve [name my own and my part in society’s goals].
You’re now:
♦️ free from my intellectual property claim♦️ free to use and share this prepositional template♦️ free in order to see what it means to be free more clearly.
Feel free to try it.
Footnotes
- Surprisingly, the French national anthem, not so much. Adopted in 1795, then banned until 1879, it starts: Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras; Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes! They’re coming right into your arms; To cut the throats of your sons, your comrades! and doesn't mention freedom until you get to the never-sung sixth verse: Liberté, Liberté chérie, Combats avec tes défenseurs! Liberty, beloved Liberty, Fight with your defenders!
- And of course, these anthems ignore the historical, continuing and in some cases increasing lack of freedom for citizens, but that’s a whole other topic; I’m exploring the meaning of the word in this post, not its selective application.
- Yes, I know to is forming the infinitive verb here, but to is still a preposition. Here's a blurb on prepositions if you need it.
- In the field of computational linguistics, an n-gram is a sequence of items (n) from a sample of text or speech. The items can be sounds, syllables, letters, words or phrases. Despite some criticisms, n-grams have been shown to be effective practical models of language data.
- Opposition to those religions deemed illiberal (e.g. Islam) is a major driver behind the rise of western illiberalism and nationalism; an illiberal counter-illiberalism.
- Liberalism is based on a set of beliefs and philosophical assumptions regarding religion, human nature, and the state. Liberalism is a political order that privileges non-negotiable rights, personal freedoms, and individual autonomy. Mill’s definition of being free as ‘able to do what one desires’ is found in his examples about valid restrictions on personal freedom, where he suggests they should only exist for self-protection.
- Around the same time, Mill wrote The Wealth of Nations that justified the plunder of other countries and the enslaving and degradation of much of their people, the period of history we call colonialism. Free is a concept about which we hold many blind spots. Sigh.
- This well-known phrase comes from a poem by Francis Scott Key written as he watched the British forces attacking the Americans at Fort McHenry in 1814 in the War of Independence. He saw the American soldiers as brave and fighting for their freedom from colonial rule. As with so many of his peers, he didn't seem to see his black slaves as a contradiction to his celebration of freedom. In 1931, a song adaptation of the poem was officially declared the national anthem of the USA.
- Admittedly, some in the 1960s focused on the extension of political and legal freedom for everyone through the civil rights movement at the same time.
- I love a road trip as much as anyone, I just don't think it makes me 'free'!
- Feeling free: https://weheartit.com/entry/64760325 [originally via Tumblr, public domain]
- Bertrand Russell quote: the author
- N-gram by Sven Yargs: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/112467/free-of-vs-free-from [public domain]
- Bill O'Reilly: social media, no source
- Burning mask in free Idaho: social media, no source
- Tell me again: https://sooth2012.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/they-hate-us-for-our-freedom/ [public domain]
- Sontag quote: the author
- 20 brands of toilet paper: the author on an overwhelming shopping trip
- Nelson Mandela quote: the author's photo of a postcard
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