Over the course of known and recorded human history, how rare is freedom? What nations had it, and for how long and to what scale? What were the limitations of that freedom within those realms?
I think the Romans had a form of freedom, as long as they were conquering their neighbors, but there were huge percentages of their population that had none.
I think about how many different ways the adversary of our souls stirs up men and women to destroy our freedoms, it is dumbfounding... drugs... immorality... disease... abuse... violence... materialism... indolence... ignorance... fear... poverty... all of these things can enslave.
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
It's ironic, but the only way that we can be truly free is to make our will, the will of the Father and His son.
As we humbly submit to His will, our freedoms enlarge.
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
The first challenge is to define what you mean by Freedom. Religious freedom is a very rare phenomenon, and prior to the US the only examples I can think of are the Persian and Roman Empires. There may be others.
Economic freedoms have been more common, as governments of all stripes have seen the benefit of letting man's ingenuity and enterprise thrive. We can see this in everything from Renaissance Italy to Modern China.
If by "freedom" you mean self-rule, or representative government, that is also pretty rare. The Romans had a Senate that represented the elite, the Greeks pioneered Democracy. There were some small republics in Europe during the Middle Ages and after. It was not wrong for the Founding Fathers to feel that the US was undertaking a great experiment in self-government that would be an example to the nations. And it has certainly spread since that time.
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I'm not voting for Ron Paul because it's not expressly prescribed in the Constitution.
