The opportunity to do what is right

Like every person who attended high school in France, I studied philosophy in my senior year. I learned about Spinoza, Rousseau, Descartes, Voltaire, and many others. One quote from Voltaire has always impressed me, especially considering the context of his time where freedom of expression was not the norm:

“I may not agree with your opinion, but I will fight to my death so you have the right to express it.”

Learning about the principles of freedom and testing them in my own life, I naturally concluded that France had to be the country that enjoyed the most freedom on Earth.

That’s until I started to travel and came to the US, where I realized that another nation was claiming to live in the country with the most freedom on Earth. It really surprised me and made me think. How could this be? 

Twenty-four years ago, I came to the US with a cultural exchange visa and had to go through an orientation week before I moved to my home in New York. During this very interesting week, I was given a long list of things I should not do or say while in the US. This list specifically targeted things or behaviors that were allowed in France but would get me in trouble here.

That’s when I started to understand that there were many kinds of freedoms and that they varied in degrees of importance from one country to another or from one person to another.

In France, for example, we have a law called “the right to caricature.” This law means that the freedom to represent someone (even a God or a religious figure) in a ridiculous or demeaning way, supersedes the right of this person (or God or religious figure) to protect their image and dignity.

Recently, this freedom was put to the test when a high school teacher who showed a caricature of a prophet to his students was beheaded by a religious extremist. We consider this type of freedom the canary in the coal mine for our democracy’s health.

Freedom of expression and secularism are two very important principles in France. This is because my country has known many times where established religion was the oppressor, and fascism or absolutism restricted our freedom to express our opinion.

In the US, I doubt that a magazine like Charlie Hebdo (which published the caricature) would ever be allowed to exist. On the other hand, freedom of religion is very important here and protected by many laws. It absolutely makes sense considering the history of this country.

Another principle of freedom I learned in France is, “One’s freedom stops where an other’s freedom begins.” In other words, freedom cannot be boundless, and we have to take into account other’s freedoms in order to have freedom ourselves.

When the first speed limit was made into law, many drivers probably thought that their freedom was being trodden upon by the government. I’m sure at the time, we could hear things like, “If I want to drive at 60 miles an hour in town, it’s my right. I don’t want the government to tell me how to drive my own car!”

But, the freedom to drive at any speed we want was lost a long time ago, and as a result, many have enjoyed the freedom to not become the victim of a car crash.

This week, our governor rolled out new restrictions to prevent a catastrophic saturation of ICU beds in the State. One of these restrictions prohibits us to have Thanksgiving with anyone else but our current household. It is definitely difficult to lose our freedom to eat turkey with our loved ones, but this will afford many the freedom to not become sick and some, the freedom to stay alive.

As I hear people around me citing their individual freedom when choosing not to wear a mask, I want to quote JL Barrow who said: “How privileged is your life where wearing a mask is the most oppressed you’ve ever felt.”

We live in a world where the word “freedom” has been politicized and weaponized. Many could benefit from the teachings of Voltaire or Rousseau as they have lost the true meaning of freedom. Maybe it is so because they are so preoccupied with themselves that it has become too difficult to accept the responsibilities and the cost of freedom. As Peter Marshall said:

“May we think of freedom not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.”

Cathy LaPlace