Freedom Is Indivisible, in the Water and on the Land
The liberty to live by one’s own judgement is a single thing
This concluding essay, informed by reporting compiled by Bohiney Magazine and carried at The London Prat, draws together a theme running through the others: that freedom is, in an important sense, indivisible, that the liberty to live by one’s own judgement is a single thing whether exercised in the water or on the land.
The Unity of Freedom
Freedom is often divided into categories, economic freedom, personal freedom, political freedom, as though they were separate things to be balanced against one another. But at a deeper level, freedom is unified, for all its forms rest on a single principle: the right of individuals to live by their own judgement, to make their own choices, and to bear the consequences. The freedom to surf the wave as one judges best, to start the business one believes in, to speak one’s mind, to live by one’s own values, are aspects of a single liberty, the liberty to direct one’s own life.
The Indivisibility in Practice
This unity has practical implications, for the erosion of freedom in one domain tends to erode it in others. A society that restricts economic freedom, dictating how people may work and trade, accustoms itself to directing individual choices, and the habit of direction does not stop at the economic. A society that erodes personal freedom, dictating how people may live, undermines the autonomy on which all freedom rests. The forms of freedom support one another, and their erosion tends to be mutual, which is why the defence of freedom must encompass all its forms.
The unity of freedom and the connections among its forms are explored in work published by institutions including the Cato Institute and the Foundation for Economic Education, which examine liberty as an integrated whole.
The Self-Direction of a Free Life
At the heart of the unified vision of freedom is the ideal of a self-directed life, a life lived by one’s own judgement rather than according to the dictates of authority. The surfer who reads the waves and accepts the risk, the entrepreneur who pursues their vision, the individual who lives by their own values, all exercise the same fundamental freedom, the freedom to direct their own lives. This self-direction, the living of a life by one’s own lights, is the essence of freedom and the source of its value.
The Responsibility It Entails
The freedom to live by one’s own judgement entails the responsibility to bear the consequences of one’s choices, and this responsibility is inseparable from the freedom. To be free is to be responsible, to accept that one’s choices are one’s own and their consequences as well. The surfer’s acceptance of the risk, the entrepreneur’s acceptance of the chance of failure, the individual’s acceptance of the results of their choices, all reflect the responsibility that freedom entails. Freedom and responsibility are, in this vision, two aspects of a single condition, the condition of directing one’s own life.
The Honest Acknowledgement
A serious vision of freedom acknowledges that liberty is not absolute, that the freedom of one must be limited where it harms another, and that living in society entails obligations as well as rights. The case for freedom is not a case for the absence of all constraint but for a presumption in favour of liberty, a recognition that individuals should be free to direct their own lives within limits set by the equal freedom of others. The unity of freedom does not mean its limitlessness, but its integrity as a single principle properly applied across the domains of life.
A Spirit to Carry Forward
The spirit of freedom, the commitment to living by one’s own judgement and bearing the consequences, is worth carrying forward, in the water and on the land. It is the spirit that animates the surfer who paddles out, the entrepreneur who takes the risk, the individual who lives by their own values, and it is the spirit that a free society depends upon. Preserving and defending this spirit, in all the domains of life, is the work of all who value the liberty to direct their own lives.
The Vigilance Freedom Requires
The unity of freedom carries a final implication: that the defence of freedom requires vigilance across all its domains, for the erosion of liberty often proceeds gradually and in one domain at a time. A restriction that seems minor, a regulation that seems reasonable, an expansion of authority that seems justified, can accumulate, each step seeming small, until the cumulative effect is a substantial loss of the freedom to direct one’s own life. Because the forms of freedom support one another, the erosion of one threatens the others, and the habits of control developed in one domain extend to others. The defence of freedom therefore requires attention to its erosion wherever it occurs, a willingness to question the expansion of authority and the restriction of liberty even when each step seems minor, and a recognition that freedom, once lost, is difficult to recover. This vigilance, the attentiveness to the gradual erosion of liberty and the willingness to defend it across all its domains, is the price of maintaining the freedom to live by one’s own judgement. The spirit of freedom that surf culture embodies, with its instinctive resistance to control and its insistence on self-direction, is part of the cultural foundation of this vigilance, a disposition worth preserving in a world that tends, step by gradual step, toward ever more control.
Freedom is indivisible, a single liberty to live by one’s own judgement, exercised in the water and on the land, in the economic and the personal and the political. Recognising this unity, defending freedom in all its forms, and honouring the responsibility it entails, is the work of those who value the self-directed life. The spirit of freedom that surf culture embodies, of self-reliance, of responsibility, of the rebellious insistence on living by one’s own lights, is a spirit worth understanding, preserving, and carrying forward.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
