How Freedoms are Lost

Freedom and liberty are not the same thing. Freedom is agency, the degree to which we can do what we want, while liberty is merely the degree of freedom we have in the political space. Liberty in itself doesn't give us a whole lot of freedom, and loss of liberty doesn't automatically translate into a great reduction in freedom.

Our day to day activities are limited by all sorts of factors that have nothing to do with liberty. These factors include the laws of physics, the weather, the economy, technology, our friends and family, our personal health and so on. Laws and regulations, although intrusive, are rarely the main factors limiting the scope of things we can do. In fact, they are a great deal less intrusive than most people believe.

What is often forgotten about laws and regulations is that they are rarely fully enforced. The current mask mandate in Porto, where I live, is only enforced sporadically, and never against people who wear their masks sloppily. Wearing our masks correctly is therefore a choice. Our freedom to breathe fresh air as we walk outside is not limited by a lack of liberty, but by our willingness to comply 100% with the law. Nobody will be fined or punished in Porto for wearing their mask below their nose, so there's no excuse for covering our noses if that makes us feel uncomfortable. We can't blame the law. The law never prevented us from sticking our noses out to breathe freely.

This principle holds true for all sorts of things, including taxation which can be evaded to a far greater extent than most people realize. Considering that taxation is the most intrusive of all regulations, as far as our freedoms are concerned, it's worth our whiles spending some time figuring out ways to avoid them as much as possible. The guiding principle is the same as with the mask mandate. First, we establish the degree to which some law can be enforced. Then, we reduce our exposure according to what we consider safe. Important in this respect is the likelihood and cost of being caught. It's a simple cost benefit analysis.

I've internalized this principle so much that I've come to find it completely natural. I consider myself a sovereign citizen operating inside a hostile environment. I never accept a law as valid unless it's a natural extension to the golden rule. I'm therefore genuinely puzzled when I come across people with a firm belief in political authority, especially when this is expressed by family and friends. I also notice a great degree of unease and discomfort among authority abiding family and friends when I express ideas that question authority.

The other day, I asked my brothers through Facebook messenger if they were going to take the vaccine when called upon to do so, and their reactions were quite telling. My older brother, who is as libertarian as I am, said that he wouldn't take it, and he argued for his decision out of simple logic relating to the low mortality rate of the Covid plague. Then he ended his argument with a defeatist statement about the inevitable introduction of vaccine passports that would force him to take it anyway.

My younger brother, who's very much a patriotic socialist, always happy to pay taxes for the greater good, and never in doubt about the accuracy and honesty of news stories on TV, expressed dismay at my older brother. My younger brother was genuinely frightened by the level of conspiracy thinking. He was more prepared to believe the propaganda from TV than the simple facts presented by his older brother.

Equally telling was the reaction of my twin brother who sees himself very much as a level headed middle ground kind of a guy. He's a consultant, advising people on all sorts of stuff, including climate change mitigation and organisational changes necessary for preventing the spread of the plague. He stayed quiet. Then, a few days later, he wrote about the wonderful return of freedoms that my parents had experienced as a result of having taken the vaccine. With most of our freedoms returned to us, wasn't it time for some kind of celebration?

Both my younger brother and my twin brother had accepted the propaganda at face value, and so had my parents. Apparently, they've been following every rule and regulation to the letter. They've skipped the normal celebrations of birthdays and Christmas. They've been social distancing. They've been doing all the things that they were told to do by their elected leaders.

Now it was my turn to be appalled. However, I refrained from making any comments as it would have upset them if I told them that none of those freedoms were ever taken away from anyone. My parents and two brothers gave them up willingly. They could have continued pretty much as normal, but they chose not to, at a tremendous cost to their own freedoms and general well being.

Sadly, all too many people think and act the way my parents and two brothers did, and that's how they loose their freedoms.

Reeve and serfs

By anonymous (Queen Mary Master) - this file: scan dated 2009, uploaded (without identification of the source) 12 May 2010 by Ann Scott (medievalminds.comReeve-and-Serfs.original1.jpg), Public Domain, Link