Informant38

free questions

are you free? have you ever been more free than you are now? less?
if you were more free at some other time, did you know it then, or only realize it later?
were you free if you didn't know you were?
which is more free, a baby in the womb, or a newborn?

here's a middle-class suburban family with seven members:

Father. Stanley. Manages a Crate&Barrel franchise.
Mother. Edith. Housewife and mom.
Eldest daughter. Mary. College-bound senior in high school, going 'steady', has a driver's license and her own car, and an afterschool job to pay for insurance etc.. Has a 1 am curfew weekends.
Youngest daughter. Madeline. Eighth-grade, no boyfriend, no job, has a bicycle, and some chores. 10 pm curfew weekends.
Dog. Fidel. Neutered. Lives in the backyard, with some house privileges and infrequent trips to places like the beach or the woods.
Cat. Leon. Neutered. Has 24/7 access to house and/or outside through cat door.
Bird. Beaker. Not neutered. Lives alone in a 2X3 foot cage, doesn't get let out because of 'droppings'.

which family member has the most freedom? which one do you think feels the most free? is it possible to talk about the freedom of the entire family? how would they exercise their freedom as a group? is it possible that most people's ideas of freedom are about being free FROM something negative? something like hunger, danger etc.? that they're more than willing to trade their independence for security? or is it that they mean freedom from the burdens of living, and/or the weight and responsibilities of having freedom, being able to choose from among many different ways, to go, to do, to be. and being responsible for the outcomes of those choices, good or bad? so that by exchanging the ability to choose from among many different things and courses of action, on the one hand, for the security of having choices made for them, on the other hand, that even though they're actually surrendering it to someone else, they experience a kind of 'freedom'? so that for these people, freedom means a kind of return to the days of childhood, or a vacation from work and responsiblities. could that be it?

would you be more free if you had more money? how much money would you need to have before having more wouldn't increase your sense of freedom?

is it slavery if no one complains?
if democracy is the exercise of political choice and freedom, and if Al Gore received the majority of popular votes in the last election, but through political manipulation and the exercise of economic power the Republican Party simply ignored the will of the people and essentially stole the election, is there a profound hypocrisy at work when the President speaks of freedom?
is it slavery if no one complains?
is it?