The Impact Of Freedom On Ancient Greece And Modern America

In our recent lectures we have spent our time understanding freedom and its exsistence under the authrity of a governments with the help of arisolian and Rosseun readings. The definition of freedom has evolved over time from being impacted by different civilizations, social structures, and cultures.There are two types of freedoms imbibed in our outlook towards the American government ,positive freedom and negative freedom,these types of freedoms can be explained through literary works such as Aristotle and Rousseauin and can today be embody by American comic book heroes.

Monarchies, aristocracies, tyrannies, oligarchies, and democracies existed throughout the human history. What about ancient Greece? Were tyrannies or democracies more prevalent? When and where exactly? Let’s take a look.

In Eric Foner’s book, The Story of American Freedom, he writes a historical monograph about how liberty came to be. In the book, his argument does not focus on one fixed definition of freedom like others are tempted to do. Unlike others, Foner describes liberty as an ever changing entity; its definition is fluid and does not change in a linear progress. While others portray liberty as a pre-determined concept and gradually getting better, Foner argues the very history of liberty is constantly reshaping the definition of liberty, itself. Essentially, the multiple and conflicting views on liberty has always been a “terrain of conflict” and has changed in time (Foner xv).

One of the most influential civilizations to the Western world today is Ancient Greece. The enduring traditions and institutions that Greek culture extended to most of the Western World include government and democracy, philosophy, literature, and architecture. The United States (US) and other Western civilizations used these traditions in the past and continue to in modern society.

The struggle for freedom has existed since the beginning of civilization. When creating a nation, leaders must decide who has power, and how much power they should have. But where is the balance between an excess of freedom and insufficient freedom? Two societies shall be compared: North Korea and Somalia. North Koreans have little liberty to do what they choose. The government denies human rights and allows citizens to starve, whilst using wealth better spent on its citizens to grow military might. Giving citizens little freedom of choice is obviously not a good way to govern; however, the opposite also makes for an unstable country ("Life"). Somalia is a shaky society with no central government and instead a series of "clans and sub-clans."

Throughout history, there has always been a constant change or shift in beliefs and perceptions in society. In particular, European society from the late Middle Ages to the era of the French Revolution involved unprecedented forms of change. Many of the changes in European society led to either an increase or decrease in human freedoms. Because of the continuous transition of events, scholars began to debate whether or not European society from the 1300’s to the 1800’s involved more or less forms of freedom. Through the discussion of historical events in European history and the brief analysis of several primary sources, the debate amongst scholars in regards to freedom is better comprehended.

In some ways, the Greeks were independent and developed a culture of their own individual freedom. It was considered a disgrace by many to work for someone else. Because of this independence, it led the lower class to want to participate in government. This promoted democracy. All of the citizens would meet in an assembly when needed, and make decisions on matters directly put on them by a council, that would later see to the implementation of their

In the 5th century B.C.E, the Persian empire fought the city-states of Greece in one of the most profoundly symbolic struggles in history. Their wars would determine the viability of a new direction in Western culture, for even as Greece stood poised to embark on an unprecedented voyage of the mind, Persia threatened to prevent the Hellenes from ever achieving their destiny. Persia represented the old ways — a world of magi and god-kings, where priests stood guard over knowledge and emperors treated even their highest subjects as slaves. The Greeks had cast off their own god-kings and were just beginning to test a limited concept of political freedom, to innovate in art, literature and religion, to develop new ways of thinking, unfettered by

Freedom is a difficult doctrine to definite in politics (Berlin, 1969). Philosophy emphasized entirely determined by the public, particularly in sociology and economics (Swift, 2007). Liberty can clarify the distinction between negative and positive liberty, the following part of this essay covers two issues (Berlin, 1969). Meanwhile, the second purpose in this essay is to explore the implication of negative and positive freedom on the relationship between the individual and the states which will utilize different real instance in the world.

Freedom can be categorized in many different ways, but for the organization Freedom House there are only two key aspects that can be ranked to determine which countries are free. By using the ideas of “civil liberties” and “political rights” which combine to create an overall “freedom rating” (Freedom House, 2014) that are compiled into a list of global ranking of freedom. In comparing countries that are free and not free, there is a trend that shows how authoritarian states tend to rank lower in terms of freedom as opposed to democratic states due to an importance being put on protecting certain groups. In authoritarian states, the government’s priority is ensuring their continued reign, whereas in democratic states, the government

Freedom is one of the major aspects that we as Americans look at in perspective, in the United States today, freedom meaning “the ability to achieve one’s preferences.” In other words, the more you get to do what you want, the freer you are. Obviously, all societies have to limit the freedom of their citizens; being free to steal and kill is not a virtue, of a person or a nation. When freedom is justly abolished it is a complex issue. One suggestion has been that governments may limit the behavior of their citizens on the grounds that prohibiting some forms of free behavior will maximize the overall freedom of the citizenry. One initial stab at measuring freedom would be to examine how much of its population a country imprisons. The more citizens behind bars for exercising their preferences, the less the citizens are able to do what they want, and so the less free they are. “Under this measurement the United States fares rather badly, as the U.S. imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any country in the world, and while the U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population, it has about 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.” (Davidson, 63) Political rights enable people to participate freely in the political process. This includes the right to vote and compete for public office and to elect representatives who have a decisive vote on public policies. Civil liberties include the freedom to develop opinions, institutions, and personal autonomy without interference from

In his writing “The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns,” Benjamin Constant claims that “modern liberty” is impossible to achieve in a pre-commercial society due to the different needs and mindsets of the people. He defends his stance by enlightening his reader on the mindset of the ancient societies and how they differ from the word today. As he suggests, it is unlikely that an ancient population would be able to adopt the modern freedoms or mindsets.

Each morning millions of men and women around the globe head to work, most if not all, have a vision and goal to prosper. But for some that may never happen, there’s a division between dream and reality. The reality is the degree of freedom in which a Country offers its people. Freedom regarding allowing and elevating an individual the right to choose their path in life. In 2015 the World erupted on an ever more increasing struggle for power, and reach the highest 10-year decline for World Freedom. Of course, there has been progressing for some; there remain more than half of the 195 countries unfree or oppressed. While 72 Countries last year including America (increased in government interference and regulation) has declined in Freedom, out of the unfree and or oppressed countries. The analysis below compares China and Cuba of any similarities or differences shared.

The ancient Egyptian cities, Athens and Sparta, have provided insights for scholars and politicians alike as to how liberty should be administered. By recognizing the past’s mistakes and accomplishments, today’s cities can conclude a more competent system. In the subject of liberty, no individual desires enslavement, but an excess of freedom can cause corruption. Liberty must not be a rampant weed that grows anarchy, but rather a houseplant that needs regulations in order to thrive. It is important to pursue liberty in a way that will maintain stability with few consequences of ultimate peril.

In the modern west, democracy is generally conceived as the “most free” regime. Democracy is uniquely characterized by majority rule. This gives its citizens the privilege to vote, overturn, and motion, with the purpose of best representing the desires of the population. Not only do societies strive for democracy to gain political freedom, but also personal freedom. Traditionally, we equate government intervention and regulation with harsh restrictions that devitalize our personal freedom, however, according to Socrates; regulation is necessary in order to experience “genuine freedom”. In the Republic, Socrates discusses his tripartite regime in which promotes optimal justice and happiness for its citizens. However, if we fully accept Socrates’ republic, this does not necessarily mean we have to reject democracy entirely. This idea will be furthered explored throughout the entirety of this essay. While Socrates describes democracy as the “fairest” regime, he refutes this claim by exposing the disastrous effect lack of structure has in a democracy, producing only spurious pleasures and, therefore, failing to achieve Socrates’s justice, (demonstrated in his republic) which produces genuine pleasures that greatly benefit the individual and the city.