Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Freedom...

“Freedom…is actually the reason that men live together in political organization at all. Without it, political life as such would be meaningless. The raison d’être of politics is freedom, and its field of experience is action.” (Arendt, The Portable Hannah Arendt, p. 440)




A man locked shackles – shackles to which he gave consent – fell to his knees and shouted, “I want freedom more than life”. A passerby stopped, bent down, and whispered, “One can live, but not die, for freedom.” As the sun beats on his reddening brow, the man in shackles asks, “How can I live in order to find it?” The passerby replies, “Live rather than search and then you will be free,” and walks away.