"Freedom isn't free."

[David A. Daniel]

I prefer: "Freedom's just another word for nothin left to lose,
And nothin ain't worth nothin but it's free"
Pretty silly for anyone to make "Freedom isn't free" into a philosophical
paradox; pretty obvious for a government to use it as propaganda, especially
when what that government really wants is your freedom.
DAD


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 12:55 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Freedom isn't free."


Google Books tells me that the popularity of this phrase may owe plenty to =
the title of a 1954 book, _Freedom is Not Free: A Study of Dynamic Democrac=
y_, by Wellington J. Griffith.=A0 But it also tells me that the phrase was =
used, not as a slogan, but=A0as an example of a logical=A0absurdity as long=
 ago as 1864:

1864 Rowland G. Hazard _Freedom of Mind in Willing_ (N.Y.: D. Appleton, 186=
5) 316: It is like saying, freedom is not free, because it cannot=A0be othe=
rwise than free; and hence, is subject to the necessity, or is constrained =
to be free ; and this is asserting that, what is, is not ; and that it is n=
ot for the very reason that it is ; than which, I apprehend, it would be di=
fficult to involve more absurdity and contradiction.
=A0
My feeling is that once thought of, this must have become a philosophy-clas=
s=A0standard PDQ, long before it became the most often quoted=A0nationalist=
 cliche' in America, powerful enough to quash any nonmilitarist argument th=
at anybody on TV is likely to advance.
=A0
Bartlett's doesn't=A0include the proverb, and I haven't saved enough for Fr=
ed's book (or discovered how to=A0remedy this suddenly boldface font). So m=
aybe this info is useful and maybe it ain't.
=A0
A legal scholar=A0I know recently said: "Freedom isn't free. _And_ freedom =
isn't dumb." Which is twice as profound as the original.
=A0
JL=0A=0A=0A

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