Free Means Paid For

         Free Means Paid For

         For some time now I have noticed a strange bit of double-think loose in American culture; namely the catch-phrase;

         “Freedom isn’t free”.

         It is often stated next to:

         “Free men are not equal / equal men are not free.”

         All of this is chemically pure Orwellian doublethink, bogus folksy bumper-sticker hot air; shibboleths  replacing  thought. “Freedom isn’t free” is, at best, an inept substitute for a far more pointed jest:
         “Free means paid for.”

This says in plaintext what the soundbite says in duckspeak.  But paid for with what? The usual; blood, sweat, tears... or the most precious coin of all; attention. So yes, you have to pay for freedom; there is no free lunch; but once freedom is paid for, it’s yours, and free in every sense. If your freedom is not free, then some SOB is trying to make you pay twice; a wicked swindle.

And as for “free man are not equal / equal men are not free”; more half-truth and duckspeak. It is precisely as true to say that unequal men are not free, and unfree men are not equal; for the essence of tyranny is that there are two laws, one for master and one for slave.

         Free man are not equal; unfree men are not equal; yet equality exists. Equal men are not free; unequal men are not free; yet freedom exists. The solution of the paradox is to distinguish between equality of opportunity and equality of result; and also between freedom under the law and freedom from the law.