{"id":2048692,"date":"2023-09-28T20:08:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T00:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/freedom-isnt-choice\/"},"modified":"2023-09-28T20:11:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T00:11:22","slug":"freedom-isnt-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/freedom-isnt-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom is not about having choices."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffreedom-isnt-choice%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2048692&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>This is a portion of a speech delivered by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/show\/the-michael-knowles-show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Knowles<\/a> at Georgetown University\u200d on\u2063 Tuesday, September 26, 2023.<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is a crucial fact about liberty, a fact at odds with \u200cour mistaken, modern, liberal notions of what liberty is. Modern liberal culture tells us that liberty \u200bis the \u200cright to choose. This\u200c is how most people today \u200b\u2014 even conservatives \u2014 think about liberty. But this is not\u200c the way our forebears thought \u2064about liberty. \u200bThis is not the way our civilization has understood liberty for most\u2062 of history. From \u200cthe ancient pagan Greeks all the \u2062way up through the medieval \u2063and Renaissance Christians right up until just a\u200c few <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/freedom-isnt-choice\/\" title=\"Freedom is not about having choices.\">hundred \u2062years ago<\/a>, liberty was understood quite differently.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even Lord Acton, an ardent liberal and favorite of\u2064 libertarians, famously admitted that liberty is <i>not<\/i> the\u2064 ability to do what we wish \u2062but rather the right to do what we ought.\u2064 The nineteenth-century Spanish writer Donoso Cortes put it even more clearly. \u200cHe said:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhen\u2063 man came from the hands of God, he understood the good; and because he understood, he willed it; and because \u2063he willed, \u200che executed it; and by executing the good his will desired and his intellect understood,\u2064 he was free. That this is the Christian signification of liberty is clear from the following words \u200dof the Gospel: \u2014\u2018You shall \u200cknow the truth and the truth shall\u200c make you free.\u2019 (John 8:32).\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We know that liberty cannot merely be the absence of external \u200bconstraint when we consider the case \u200dof the heroin addict. According to the modern, liberal conception, the freest man \u200dis the one \u200dwith the fewest\u2063 external constraints. \u200cSo,\u200c according to that definition, the freest man in America is the heroin addict in San Francisco. As long as he\u2019s got a \u200dfew bucks in his pocket \u2014\u200b no matter how dubiously he acquired\u2063 them \u2014 that man can shoot up dope in a filthy alleyway, \u2063and no cop is going to stop him. He can loiter, he can defecate in\u200c the\u2064 streets, and\u2064 he can sleep \u2064on the sidewalk \u200duntil he freezes and dies\u2064 of exposure. Man, isn\u2019t he free? I\u2063 don\u2019t think so. He\u2019s a slave\u2064 \u2014 a slave to his \u2063appetites, his passions, his \u200dlower will. And he knows it. He probably wishes to break his addiction \u2014 he almost\u2064 certainly does \u2014 but his appetites cloud his intellect, and his defective will succumbs to temptation until\u200b it destroys\u2064 him.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/show\/the-michael-knowles-show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anyone who\u2019s ever had a bad habit \u2014 or \u2062a good habit, for that matter \u2014\u2064 knows that the more\u200d you do something, the easier it is to do, and \u200cthe harder it is to do the opposite. The\u2064 more \u200byou do drugs, the \u2064easier it is to do more drugs, and the harder it is to stop doing drugs.\u200b The\u200c more you learn, the\u200d easier it is to know things, and the\u2064 harder it \u2064is to fall into error. This fact of \u2064<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dont-be-like-the-hippies\/\" title=\"Don\u2019t Be Like the Hippies\">human nature<\/a> reveals a second error with\u200c the \u200bliberal definition of liberty: namely, that the better\u200d we become \u2014 or the worse we \u200dbecome \u2014 the less free we should be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s an unfamiliar thought\u2064 today. What I \u2062mean is: so long as we have no \u200dhabits, tastes, or \u200cinclinations \u2014 so long as we\u2019re perfectly \u2064neutral \u2014 then we are perfectly free, according to the liberals, because we are perfectly disposed to choose between alternatives.\u2062 But the \u200cmoment we begin to develop habits and tastes and inclinations \u2014 which of course \u200chappens to all of \u2064us\u2064 all the time, whether we want it to or not \u2014 then \u2062suddenly we are less free \u200bto choose between alternatives. The moment we start shooting\u2064 heroin,\u2063 the less able we are to choose \u2064not to\u200b shoot \u2064heroin. The moment we start learning, the less able we are\u200d to\u200b err.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taken to its \u200clogical conclusion, we see the absurdity of the \u2062liberal definition of liberty \u2063in \u200cthe case of God. Because according to the liberal definition, God himself is\u2063 not free. Because God cannot sin. His very being precludes him from evil. And yet does anyone seriously believe that \u200dGod, the creator of heaven and earth,\u200d of all things visible and invisible,\u2063 is not free? Even an atheist must admit that the very \u2064concept of God\u200b demands that he be not\u200c only free but perfectly free. So how can this be?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s for the \u200dsame reason \u2063that\u200b we all know \u200dintuitively that the\u200d heroin \u2063addict is\u200d not free. Because freedom is <i>not<\/i> impartiality between good \u2062and evil, right and wrong, \u200ctruth and falsehood. Freedom is not synonymous with choice. On the contrary, choice is a defect\u2064 of our liberty, which actually consists of willing and understanding. Human beings, uniquely among the\u2062 animals, possess intellect and will.\u2063 That\u2019s what distinguishes\u2062 us \u200cfrom the other animals. \u200cOther animals possess instinct. A chihuahua can \u200bsometimes figure\u200d out where we keep the dog food and eat it. But a chihuahua cannot write a poem or contemplate justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as a consequence, neither chihuahuas nor any other non-human animal is free. \u2062We put <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-conservatism-must-conserve\/\" title=\"What Conservatism Must Conserve\">human beings<\/a> on trial for committing crimes because we are expected to know better and act better. Crimes are an abuse of \u2064our liberty.\u200d We do not put chihuahuas on trial \u2014 even if the little\u2064 chihuahua bites a \u2062kid \u2064at the park \u2014 because chihuahuas can\u2019t abuse \u200dtheir liberty,\u2063 because they don\u2019t have liberty, because they don\u2019t have intellect or will.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liberty, therefore,\u200c is not the maximization of choice but the perfection of our understanding\u200c and of our \u2064will. And since God alone\u2063 understands and\u200d wills perfectly, God alone is perfectly free. And we will be\u2063 free only inasmuch as we align our wills and our intellects with God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know that all of \u200cthis probably sounds \u200dstrange in an age when \u2063Reddit-tier \u200catheism reigns supreme in politics, but this is how the wisest men of history have understood the defining feature of human nature.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> How does the development of habits and inclinations affect our ability to choose freely, contradicting the liberal view of liberty<\/h2>\n<p><span>  \u200bUs to recognize his freedom, his ability \u2062to choose between\u200b alternatives. But according to the \u200cliberal definition, God is not free because he cannot choose evil. This reveals the absurdity and limitations of the modern understanding of liberty.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast,\u2064 the traditional\u2063 understanding of liberty, as explained by Donoso Cortes,\u200c recognizes that true liberty comes from understanding\u200c the good and\u200b willingly choosing to execute\u200c it. It \u200dis not simply the ability to do whatever we want, but rather the right \u200dto\u200c do\u2064 what \u200bwe \u200dought. This understanding has \u2063been present throughout history, from the \u200bancient Greeks to the\u200c medieval and Renaissance Christians.<\/p>\n<p>When we consider \u200bthe case of\u200d the heroin\u2063 addict, we can see that\u2063 the modern definition\u200c of liberty \u2062falls short. According to the liberal conception, the addict is the freest \u200dman because he \u2062has the \u200dfewest external constraints. But in reality, he is enslaved to his \u200dappetites,\u2064 passions, and lower will. His desires cloud his\u200b intellect, and his defective will\u2062 succumbs to temptation, leading \u200dto his self-destruction. True freedom is not found in indulging in\u2064 harmful behaviors, \u2064but in\u2063 recognizing and choosing what is good and virtuous.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the\u2064 more we\u200b engage in \u200bcertain actions, whether good\u200d or bad, the easier it becomes to continue on that path. This aspect of human nature challenges \u2063the liberal definition of\u2064 liberty that suggests \u200bthe more neutral \u200dand devoid of habits one is, the freer they are. In reality,\u200d as we develop habits, tastes,\u200c and inclinations, we become less free to choose\u2064 alternatives. Our choices become influenced by \u2063our habits, and our ability to \u2064choose\u200c what is right or wrong is affected.<\/p>\n<p>To take this\u2062 argument further, we can observe how the liberal definition of liberty fails when applied to \u2062God. According to the liberal view, God is not free\u2063 because he cannot choose evil. Yet, even an atheist would acknowledge that the concept of God necessitates recognizing \u2064his freedom. The traditional understanding\u2062 of liberty allows for the recognition \u200dof God&#8217;s freedom, understanding that\u2063 his perfect being precludes him from evil.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-what-the-metoo-movement-can-teach-conservatives-about-liberty\/\" title=\"KNOWLES: What The #MeToo Movement Can Teach Conservatives About Liberty\">modern liberal notion<\/a> of liberty as the \u200cright to choose \u200dis misguided. True liberty\u200c is not found in indulging in our every whim and desire, but in understanding the good and willingly choosing to execute it. It is a concept that has been recognized throughout \u2063history and is\u2062 fundamental to the human\u2064 experience. By reevaluating our understanding \u2063of\u200d liberty, we can foster a \u2064more nuanced\u200c and virtuous society that values the pursuit of the good rather than the indulgence of personal desires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Knowles, in his speech at Georgetown University on September 26, 2023, highlighted a vital truth about liberty. He argued that our contemporary understanding of liberty, centered around the right to choose, contradicts the essence of true liberty. Modern liberal culture&#8217;s definition of liberty oversimplifies its complexity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":2048693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2048692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2048693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}