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Part Four - Family and Society
Chapter 20. Society
5) Freedom
3. Freedom Requires Social Solidarity within an Orderly Social System; It Is Far Removed from Individualism
World Scripture
You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free. Clarence Darrow
The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of Nature for his rule. The liberty of man in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established by consent in the commonwealth, nor under the dominion of any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall enact according to the trust put in it. Freedom, then, is not… liberty for every one to do what he lists, to live as he pleases, and not to be tied by any laws, but freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power erected in it. John Locke, Two Treatises on Government (Humanism)
What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (Humanism)
The roots of the contradiction between the solemn affirmation of human rights and their tragic denial in practice lies in a notion of freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and service to them. While it is true that the taking of life not yet born or in its final stages is sometimes marked by a mistaken sense of altruism and human compassion, it cannot be denied that such a culture of death, taken as a whole, betrays a completely individualistic concept of freedom, which ends up becoming “the freedom of the strong against the weak,” who have no choice but to submit.
It is precisely in this sense that Cain’s answer to the Lord’s question, “Where is Abel your brother?” can be interpreted: “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9). Yes, every man is his “brother’s keeper,” because God entrusts us to one another. And it is also in view of this entrusting that God gives everyone freedom, a freedom which possesses an inherently relational dimension. This is a great gift of the Creator, placed as it is at the service of the person… but when freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied of its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are contradicted.
There is an even more profound aspect which needs to be emphasized: freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its essential link with the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to emancipate itself from all forms of tradition and authority, shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by no longer ends up taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim.
This view of freedom leads to a serious distortion of life in society. If the promotion of the self is understood in terms of absolute autonomy, people inevitably reach the point of rejecting one another. Everyone else is considered an enemy… society becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side, but without any mutual bonds… social life ventures on to the shifting sands of complete relativism. Everything is negotiable, everything is open to bargaining: even the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life. Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Christianity)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Liberty exists where everyone lives for others and honors others. When we live for others, we are liberated as well. Living for others is intrinsically liberating. That is why I tell you to live for the sake of others. (323:73, May 31, 2000)
What people today mean by freedom is the right to assert oneself. Their freedom is merely a shield for their self-centered lifestyle. When ten people each assert their freedom, they erect ten walls around themselves, and within those walls their personalities and interests diverge to such an extent that they cannot get along together…
Today the Western world exalts freedom. Yet you should regard the word “freedom” as a fearful word. What is true freedom? If people take freedom as the opportunity to lift up God and the world, it is well and good. This is freedom that everyone can enjoy. But if people are self-centered and put everyone down, then where can there be freedom? (107:272-74, June 1, 1980)
Historically the pursuit of freedom was born out of the desire to lift up society to a higher dimension. It was not born to break down and destroy the social order. Yet today’s young people say, “We want the freedom to drink, dance and enjoy rock music.” Crying out, “freedom!” they flaunt social norms, break down the social order and ruin the foundations of society. This freedom is nothing but self-indulgence. It is one of Satan’s destructive strategies. (116:102, December 27, 1981)
The greater the freedom, the greater is the need to maintain discipline and respect for law and order. The greater the precision of a piece of machinery, the more exactly its vertical and horizontal motion must accord with the principles of its design. Freedom yields abundant fruit as long as laws are obeyed. This truth cannot be denied, particularly in today’s advanced social system and scientific civilization.
Can human beings enjoy freedom while ignoring the social system? No, the social system exists for the benefit of human beings. Therefore, people need to align themselves to the laws, organization and structure of their social system and prepare themselves to function within it. They should even take on leadership roles and protect it. People who fulfill this role can have no dealings with selfindulgent freedom.
To travel anywhere, we need a road. We require a direction. Today’s free societies are lacking direction. How can they have direction, when everyone does as they please? Yet is there such a thing as a mind without direction? It is the mindset of ruin. (49:190-93, October 10, 1971)
The freedom that most people seek for is not what they can enjoy eternally, nor does it touch the core of their original mind. Instead, the pursuit of freedom drives people to extreme individualism and leaves them more and more isolated.
As long as people do not uphold Heaven’s principles, do not pursue their relationship with God, and do not lift up the concept of freedom that is perfect and unchanging, the freedom that people seek for on earth will not be aligned with the freedom Heaven is seeking. Therefore, as the prevailing trend demonstrates, the more aggressively people pursue freedom, the farther away they are from it. (4:318, October 12, 1958)
The democratic world seeks to live by Christian teachings, but its way of life is permeated by individualism, bolstered by scientific technology. Hence, the freedom people pursue in today’s democratic societies is fundamentally opposed to Christian teaching.
Christianity teaches freedom for the entire cosmos, liberation for the whole, and unity in the heart of God. Christian freedom is a state where we can rejoice together with God and the entire world. However, most people in the democratic world today insist on an individualistic concept of freedom. As a result, they deny their nation, their society, their community, and even their family and the relationship of husband and wife. Eventually, they come to deny the very Center of their mind [God].
What do they have left? Loneliness. When their loneliness reaches the extreme and explodes, they no longer trust others or even themselves. Their feeling of loneliness and distrust becomes an all-encompassing fear and depression, which leads to self-destructive behavior, even suicide. This trend is ever more evident in contemporary times.
Hence, if we really want freedom, we should not cry out for the irresponsible freedom that people sought in the past or are seeking today, but we should seek for the true freedom that accompanies the ideal of God’s love. (4:319-20, October 12, 1958)
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