Of Ownership and Freedom

Freedom is something we all crave but few of us can define. It is one of those elusive concepts often talked about but seldom understood. What is freedom, really? What characteristic must be possessed by someone or something for us to agree that that entity is indeed free. I have a suggestion: freedom is the ability to have ownership. To be free, one must be able to have ownership of one's self, one's time and one's possessions.

To be free isn't simply to be alive. We can approach this from a multitude of levels. First, the plants and trees in nature are living organisms, but we own them. We cut down trees and dig up land, because we have ownership and mother nature does not. Furthermore, animals are living organisms but we own them as well. A dog or a cat (for the most part, there may be some strange cases) cannot own property. We own our pets. The utlimate level of this phenomenon is that fact that parents own their children. A child's self, time, and possessions are controlled by his or her parents.

There are, of course, rules that govern and restrict ownership of living things, but these concepts fundamentally serve to illustrate the fact that he who owns is he who is free. There are countless ethical issues involved in what should and should not be owned--what should and should not be given freedom. Perhaps freedom is not the ultimate goal that we should strive for as human beings, but I only wish to argue that point that we cannot be free unless we are free to own.