Freedom isn’t free.
“Is freedom really free?” Thambi asked as he and Ari were walking along the rocky ledge. Thambi (younger brother in Tamil) and Ari were in the last leg of their ten-mile hike in the Freemont Older Open Space Preserve in Saratoga, California. Their return journey was mostly negotiating downward slopes, so their conversation on freedom was not interrupted by Ari’s labored breathing anymore. It was a bright, sunny, typically beautiful, California day.
Thambi continued, “Freedom is not free, Anna (older brother in Tamil). Some people might say so, but it isn’t. Freedom has a price; it is expensive to attain and sometimes even more expensive to maintain. Lately, I have started thinking of freedom as two words ‘free’ and ‘dom’, I think of the second word-fragment as an abbreviation for ‘domination’. If you follow my line of thought, the word ‘freedom’ could be understood as ‘being free from domination’. Domination of any kind, political, economic, military, or even religious. People often associate freedom with independence, but that association is tenuous, some independent countries curtail the freedom of their citizens at will. To be free from those and other types of domination, societies and individuals must be aware of their rights first and then willing to pay a price. Sometimes that price is explicit or easy to see, sometimes it is not.”
Ari aka Arijit Sen listened. He didn’t understand where Thambi was going with this argument, but he figured he would know soon. Thambi aka Ajay and Ari were classmates in college in South India. As soon Ari had discovered that Ajay was one year younger, he decided to call him ‘Thambi’ because that was one of the four Tamil words he knew then. As a payback, Ajay immediately switched to ‘Anna’. They continued that habit for four decades after their graduation, even when both were nearing retirement and had grown children. Their classmates laughed at them then, and many still did. Now, even in their sixties, their Thambi-Anna Tiki-taka continued. Thambi and Ari met whenever Ari’s work took him to Europe or Thambi’s vacation brought him to California. After their long hike, Ari and Thambi went to Ari’s favorite Japanese restaurant, it was nearly lunchtime anyway.
When they sat down, Hashimoto San (the owner, and chef), waved at Ari from the open kitchen window and asked, “Your regular order, Ari San?” As a regular customer, Ari didn’t need the menu, he responded, “Hai, so desu.” One of the new waiters brought their Kirin beer almost immediately, the seafood and tuna sushi platter took a while to arrive though. After a sip of his beer, Ari asked Thambi, “Where were you going with that conversation on freedom, Thambi? Were you implying that societies and people are unaware that freedom is not free and because of that there is a tendency to take it for granted?”
“Exactly, Anna,” Thambi said loudly and tapped the table hard, Thambi’s excitement shook the yellow liquid in the two glasses. Thambi continued, “Here is how the events typically unfold. We take freedom for granted, and as a result, indifference sets in, we stop paying attention and stop paying the price. Time goes by and after a while, when freedom gets threatened, we don’t act because of our inertia from indifference. Soon thereafter, freedom is thwarted, and we are subjected to some sort of domination. By then it is too late, this is like the ‘chemical change’ we studied in our middle school science class.
“From there it is not so easy to go back to the original state. We see such sequence of events taking place in countries and regions all over the world. Even in some of the world’s stable democracies. Another worrying aspect for me is the strong correlation between reduction in freedom and increase in nationalism. We see it in countries like Hungary, and Turkey, even in large functioning democracies like India. In the past, religious freedom was a problem in countries in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, now those problems have been seen in larger, established democracies as well.
“Many nation-states have started seeing freedom of the press, religious freedom, and freedom to choose who you love as a threat. Curtailment of freedom is often justified in the name of the nation-state. In many countries, elected governments have taken active measures to curtail freedom. In a few cases, citizens managed to replace those governments through elections. But in many cases, they couldn’t, because once elected autocrats easily changed laws and tightened their grip on power. Civil society must learn to speak up for its precious freedoms. People know you care only when you speak up, Anna.”
Ari began to understand the argument, he said, “I see what you are saying, Thambi. Take local newspapers as an example. In the past, our neighborhood in San Francisco Bay Area had two or three local newspapers with wide circulation. Now those newspapers have closed because citizens like us stopped subscribing. It was a small monthly fee, but it ‘felt’ too much because ‘news’ was free on the internet. Now we get all our news from the internet or social media or from one of the major national newspapers (like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal). If we get the news from social media, typically that ‘news’ is tagged or recommended or popped by our ‘friends’. In other words, we only read what our social media ‘friends’ read, we love being among like-minded people, that kind of security is seductive. We never read or watch what people outside our circle are reading or watching.
“We feel so comfortable and secure inside our bubble that most of us do not realize that we have lost our freedom of choice. Theoretically, we can go and pick news from other sources, but it takes much more time and effort, so most don’t go there. We are unaware of the world outside our bubble. The news that we can get from the Internet is somewhat similar, it is what large, syndicated media houses would post on the Internet. If we depend on national newspapers, then we only get the perspectives of their editorial board or management. If those newspapers have left-leaning views that is what we would get, if they lean right then that is what we would be forced to live with. The freedom to pick our news source is all but gone in practical terms, but many do not realize that.
“By being small, local tv and newspapers often remained below the radar, which allowed them to be independent. In many cases those sources had more editorial freedom, they did not have to be left or right leaning, they could stay above the fray. That breed of news organization does not exist anymore, so there is no divergence of views. Because of this left or right slant of the media, people develop left or right-leaning views on everything. The result is a more polarized society, the two sides live inside their bubbles, and there is no interest in building a bridge or connecting with the other side. This is a classic example of loss of freedom, a rich man from Australia might have more influence in deciding what I read or watch in Cupertino, California. It sounds very strange, but it is probably true.”
Thambi gulped another roll of sushi and added, “Anna, your example started with local newspapers losing subscribers, in retrospect the monthly subscription would have been a small price to pay to preserve that freedom. I would also point out that your nation i.e., the United States has no interest in fixing this problem. It is quite similar in my adopted country of Germany. Years ago, when our government started buying cheap gas from Russia, we went along because the price was low. When the Fukushima disaster happened in Japan, we even over-corrected ourselves by moving away from nuclear power in a hurry.
“It was only when Russia attacked Ukraine and threatened to cut energy supplies, we woke up and realized how dependent we had become. Our freedom to choose had been sacrificed over many years, we watched it but didn’t act. That loss of freedom had huge political implications. The freedom of picking our principal energy supplier was never free in the first place. In retrospect, it would have been prudent to have a balanced approach with a mix of renewables and EU-based suppliers. In the past, that approach was considered ‘too costly’. A similar situation is brewing in Germany around immigration. This is happening everywhere, not just in Germany or the EU. Citizens must participate in those discussions.”
“But Thambi, what is your goal with this line of thinking? Let us say that you have managed to convince folks that freedom is not free, then what?” Ari sounded somewhat impatient.
As Thambi and Ari were talking, four new customers came into the restaurant and occupied the next table. The two young ladies in that group were talking loudly about Roe vs Wade. They were saying that the recent vote in the state of Ohio proved that most Americans agree that women should have the right to choose. The ladies were aghast that the legislatures in the red states thought otherwise and did not hesitate to go against overwhelming state-wide public opinion. Thambi could see that younger people were more worried about that issue.
Thambi listened to snippets of their loud conversation for a few minutes and commented, “Anna, the next table is also discussing curtailment of freedom. As I was telling you, this has become a global problem, freedom is under threat from many directions, everywhere. You asked me, why I was raising this issue and what next. I have been working on this with a dozen or so like-minded friends across the EU. I can describe our goal in two phases. The first phase is simply ‘awareness building’, this phase will focus on making people aware that freedom matters. Freedom is precious, we should nurture it and never take it for granted. The EU (European Union) already has processes in place for this type of awareness building, we are leveraging some of those and connecting those with our grassroots efforts. Most of this phase is done digitally, so we do not need a big budget, but we do compete for attention because the ambient noise in the digital world is deafening!
“Our main challenge for the first phase is getting folks to understand and act on what we articulate, particularly in countries where the local government doesn’t care much about freedom. We are encouraging and teaching people to speak up. We are also showing how to organize digitally. We call ourselves FLOC (Freedom Loving Ordinary Citizens). Our organization is a bit like GREENPEACE. We intend to use non-violent and creative action to create a freer world. In order to achieve our goal, we might have to confront the organizations that threaten freedom. We want to make this activism global by creating charter members in different countries. That is the best way to build a momentum quickly.
“The second phase of our would focus on highlighting and recording curtailment of freedom in different regions and discuss strategies for restoration. Education will be a big part of our effort. Restoration of freedom that is threatened or taken away is a lofty goal, it requires political will. Sometimes it might not even be possible. I would admit that our second phase is a bit aspirational, but we are optimistic. Why don’t you join our grassroots effort, Anna?”
“So, you are on a recruitment mission, this time Thambi? I should have known.” Ari smiled.
“Anna, one of your favorite experts on policy, Richard Haass has recently published a new book called ‘The Bill of Obligations’. In that book, he argues that the very idea of citizenship must be revised. He proposes that obligations must be placed on the same footing as rights. Today most folks are very aware of their rights, but they care a lot less about their obligations. The ten obligations that Haass introduces are essential for healing the divisions and safeguarding the country’s future. The book is written with the US in mind, but the messages conveyed by Richard Haass are universal, the messages could apply to dozens of countries.
“The bill of obligations are not a burden but rather commitments that we make to fellow citizens to uphold democracy and counter the growing apathy, division, and disinformation, that threaten us all. In the book Richard Haass said “We get the government and the country we deserve. Getting the one we need, however, is up to us.” That, I thought was profound. The Bill of Obligations gives citizens across the political spectrum a plan of action to achieve it. We see FLOC’s charter in a similar way, Anna. By promoting and restoring freedom we are essentially strengthening democracy, people’s right to choose. Don’t you want to be part of that effort? Speaking up and organizing against the curtailment of freedom is another way of paying the price, Anna. I don’t think I have to recruit you, if I know you, you’ll come on board willingly. Your network and organizing ability could take this initiative to a whole new level. Civil society must be engaged in this effort, it must participate. If it is not on the table, it will be on the menu.”
Watching Thambi’s passionate plea, Ari laughed out so loud that Hashimoto San got startled at his chef’s window and asked, “Ari San, Daijobu?” Ari responded hurriedly, “Hai, Hai Daijobu desu.” After a full minute, Ari controlled himself and managed to say, “What a pitch! Clearly, the best recruitment pitch I have heard in my entire life!”
Thambi joined in the laughter as they walked towards Ari’s car in the parking lot.
