I finally found the time to start this series of articles. The very idea of antagonism of freedom and fairness prompted me to read the blog of the Russian thinker Anatoly Nesmeyan who writes under the nickname “el_murid”. I would like to dwell in more detail on the consideration of the contradictions between these bases of human values.
These two values are so commonplace that we simply do not notice them. But if we look closely, we will notice that they constantly surround us. They are everywhere. They are in religion. They are in the justice. They are in ideology and in politics. But one should not think that these are only human values. Animals also have these values. So their effect is very widespread. This is one of the foundations of any social mind, even the most primitive.
In different human societies, only one value is chosen as the main one, the second is subordinate. In the modern world, the idea of the supremacy of freedom in democracy. And the idea of the supremacy of fairness in totalitarian societies.
Democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others that have been tried. © Winston S. Churchill
But if democracy has a chance to get out of this trap and become something else, something better. Then totalitarianism often slips into despotism and destroys society. Maybe this is due to the fact that propaganda under totalitarianism convinces of the fairness of what is not actually fair. But after all, democracy can also assert the freedom of what should be limited in a normal society.
A person’s freedom ends where another man’s freedom begins.
How to understand where this line of personal freedom lies? In a developed society, there are complex relationships between people.
La liberte c’est la possibilite de faire tout cequi ne nuit pas a autrui.
Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm others.
(Quote from the French Constitution)
But how, in this interpretation, to understand where the border of harm begins? People who smoke are causing obvious harm to non-smokers. But would it be considered harm to restrict non-smokers in their freedoms? At a minimum, a person who smokes will experience psychological discomfort. Is this harm? And this is the simplest example.
With the development of society, the border of personal freedoms expands. But can it expand further? Indeed, in a developed society, the concept of harm is also expanding.
This is where the clear need for attracting fairness appears. But the concept of fairness also changes with the development of society. This usually finds expression in the form of laws.
But are these laws just? When to understand that the development of society has led to the fact that the laws become obsolete?
But you can look at the problem from the other side. After all, the freedom of one can give great freedom to many others. The freedom of creators and inventors gives new, previously unseen freedoms to the entire society. And that’s great. This is good as long as inventions are used for good. But inventions can also be used for evil. Inventions can lead to unprecedented despotism. And here again the idea of fairness can help us.
There are no universal values. In the same way, there are no universal tools that can be used in all circumstances. We always need to understand the context and choose what is most appropriate at the moment. And this is the main problem. How to avoid mistakes. How to understand when freedom ends? Is it fair to restrict freedom in this particular case? How much to restrict freedom? As you can see, there are a lot of questions.
Questions, endless questions. In the next articles I will dwell on most of them in more detail. In the meantime, this is a reason for reflection.
I do not know of any examples of highly developed societies where these two values are in balance. Everywhere, as I know, one value prevails. If you know examples of developed cultures where there is no contradiction between freedom and justice, then please write to me. I will look at these examples and this will affect the subsequent articles in the series.