The human struggle over the course of history is to attain freedom, as the great German Philosopher Hegel said “History is a march towards freedom”, to put it simply he described the evolution of history as a dialectical process in which each event is triggered by another, which in turn effect the other and it’s ultimate goal is to attain freedom. Not only in Hegel’s philosophy but the idea of freedom has been central in human social and political evolution over the millenniums as the effort has been to get to higher point of individual freedom. Although the idea of freedom varies from society to society as it gets heavily influenced by the values and belief systems that exist in that particular society.
The idea of freedom that today’s world mostly resonant with is the Western idea of liberty ( Freedom with restraints as to not infringe on other’s liberty) and rights which are put at its center and above all other entities in a society. Preservation of individual rights and liberty is the primary focus of modern Western democracies and the protection of individual liberty is considered superior even to the state or national narrow interests, but not every society sees it with a similar lens apart from the countries influenced by European mercantilism and imperialism, and git colonized.
China for instance has had a different viewpoint on freedom throughout its history. In Earlier millenniums when even centralized states as we see today didn’t existed in Europe, Confusion ideology believed in the supremacy of family and kin relationship over individual rights and even the state(considered rulers to be morally bound). Loyalty towards kin, family and especially parents have a central value in confusion ideology so individual freedom was somewhat submissive to kin relationship and one can say that family as a unit has had more freedom than individual. Then another ideology that stood up against confusion with the rise of QIN Dynasty, legalism, believed in the brute force of the state and suppressed individual liberties and kin freedom the same, they believed in freedom of state to do what’s necessary to maintain stability and to what the ruler sees to be in the interest of nation, and lastly the Modern contemporary China ruled by CPC believe in economic freedom to some extent but curbs social and political freedom and everything is censored and controlled, acting like a totalitarian state.
Similarly now modern liberal states of Europe like Italy and Germany, which were once staunch supporters of Fascism and Nazism, under Mussolini and Hitler, whose idea of freedom was deeply embedded in hyper-nationalism and racism, who believed in the supremacy of the nation and to do everything to secure national interest at the cost of the individual. Its freedom idea allowed the state(nation) to get empowered on the sacrifices of individual rights. The same can be seen in Today’s Russia where the state has become extremely powerful, infringing on individual liberties. And if you turn towards Eastern societies, the idea of freedom is rooted in a patriarchy where men are generally free to do as they like, they enjoy social, economic and political liberties but women on the other hand gets limited choices, even their right to education is curbed and also their right to vote, which is basic in democracies isn’t utilized properly. These societies have taken a lot from Western liberalism but these ideas haven’t taken root in the society and instead have been submissive to already present societal structures that are embedded in patriarchy but it’s certainly trying to get loosened but it has a way to go.
So if there’s a different version of freedom everywhere, what can be regarded as true freedom? The answer to it is quite simple, freedom is simply having a choice to do what one considers best for himself, what one conscience tells him/her is best in his/her interests as long as it doesn’t undermine anyone else freedom, simply saying having the liberty to choose for himself/herself in any field of life, whether that’s personal, social, economic or political one should always have the liberty of choice and this liberty of choosing what’s best for oneself makes us conscious unique human beings.
