Freedom is the ability to decide
Freedom springs from where one can take an honest decision on one's own life,
on one's relations, one's talents, one's belongings;
on one's own property in short.
Colors, form or size, the frontiers of one's garden of freedoms are one's imagination,
will ... and the neighbor's weeds.
Freedom more generally
is intrinsic to any system that is able to perceive the environment, think and react.
And it can be stolen.
Individuals are free to plant the flowers they want.
Humans can care for their own garden best.
Together, in a group, they're even astonishing.
On the other hand,
they can't protect it alone against the aleas of nature and the human seven sins.
The lonely freedom fighter's power
is not almighty when trying to prevent unwanted losses.
For stability, common rule is a necessity.
It's also a wanted compromise to achieve more.
The origin of cathedrals, castles... and the mafia.
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Being woven into the individual,
the freedom to use one's property has only a price for the others.
A price the group pays for
with the same resources the individual freedoms need to grow in,
a price the group might even pay with individual freedoms themselves.
The origin of the coercion a group imposes on individuals.
The origin of obligation and interdiction, but also rights and freedoms.
Also the origin of the conflict of interest
between social stability and individual freedom.
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In a community,
a group where individual believes are rather coherent,
conflict of interests don't block the pulse of the group. A leader decides.
In a society, a group where worldviews are contradictory,
and where nobody is believed to speak for everybody,
the diverging vectors of the communities can freeze the whole system
or worse.
To protect from such damage, we agree to a set of rules,
that dictate the process to follow for conflict resolution.
Indeed, one actually rather plays an unfair game,
where maybe part of one's freedom gets stolen,
than actually play a fair game,
where one risks to die too early because of preventable causes.
The hope of being able - together with one's community -
to win next time, to fine-tune the system,
or to just grow individually stronger and more flowers of freedoms,
usually prevails over the frustrations of endured injustice.
The origin of the contrat social,
who's body of institutions and regulations
is the base for common rule in a modern nation state.
Over decades,
the once only imagined governments have become reality,
revolving into the physical reflections of the constitutions
spreading their roots inexorably throughout the countries,
influencing thereby as well the rhythm of the individuals, communities, the states themselves
and as well as the whole wildlife more generally speaking.
Indeed,
once humans have decided to create a central authority,
a new system is born that can perceive the environment, think and react.
An imaginary organism that wasn't there before
but now competes for freedom against individuals ... in the real world.
In prosperous years,
the states can provide more services than in catastrophic ones.
They can reduce taxes or pay back debt.
In difficult times
the individuals might have to transfer more of their assets and freedoms to the central authorities
in order for them to be able to guarantee stability amongst the insecurity
and protect with it more effectively the basic freedoms of a humanistic democracy.
The origin of the socialists, the liberals, the federalists and the greens.
The origin of the progressives versus the conservatives.
In short, the origin of state matters.
The executive as the governor of daily state matters of a society
is the pivotal point in the balancing act of freedom versus stability.
In that act, a directorial presidency is astonishing much more fair and efficient
than a monopolar head-of-state.
Maybe the origin of the Swiss success story.
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