And this is my second political philosophy paper. Not nearly as good as the first. And I didn't finish it becuase class started and it was due. But I find it interesting.


The Grand Inquisitor expresses the view that what people really want in life is happiness, achieved through material means. People don't want freedom, honor, choice, or responsibility. They want food. They want peace. They want substance. People would prefer being a well fed, secure slave than a free person, with all the responsibility that comes with choice. The Grand Inquisitor goes so far to claim that if you love mankind, you won't make men be free. You will save them from their responsibility, provide everything they think they need to be happy, and control them completely. To the Grand Inquisitor, this is how to provide the masses with happiness.

This essay raises interesting questions about what people really want. Do people want happiness, or do they want freedom? Is happiness possible without freedom? And what is freedom worth, if it doesn't provide a path towards happiness? While it's easy in any discussion to race about the wonders of freedom, the general view of freedoms place in society may not be a realistic one. Throughout history, politicians and philosophers have claim that freedom is a necessity of life, and that people want freedom. But is that really what people want? Just look at some recent events in American politics. The war on terror has made people scared, they don't feel secure, and so they are giving the government more and more power so they can be protected. Look at the American economy. We've got a mixed economy, where we give the government control over our economic freedoms, so that we can be ensured a basic standard of living. We give up our freedoms for bread. And our economy is one of the freest economies in the world. It's in my own life as well. One of the reasons I came to Webb is because I didn't have to deal with the responsibility of choosing a major, and choosing classes. I gave up freedom in my academic career in order to avoid choice. This is something that occurs over and over again in society. But is it what people want? Who can really make this judgment? People scream and yell over their right to freedom, but when it comes down to action, people choose peace, and possessions, over freedom on a regular basis. And who’s to say whether this is a right choice or not?

It sounds noble to say you fight for freedom, and I know the ideals of freedom appeal to me immensely. But what is freedom worth? What's the point of being free? This is not an easy question to answer, yet it seems that freedom is necessary to make life meaningful. Because what's the point of living a life, however happy, if you aren't free? If you aren't making any choices, can you consider your life your own? I believe that in order for life to have any meaning, any value, it must be a free life. Because a slave, a true slave, isn't really a human in any important way. They are a machine that does what they are told to do, is happy when they are told to be happy, and is sad when they are told to be sad. Freedom is what lets a person be a person, makes them unique, because each person will make their own, personal choices. It's our freedom to choose that gives us our humanity. So while the Inquisitor might be correct that people don't always want freedom, but that doesn't mean that if we love them we should save them from their own freedom. For saving someone from their freedom is the same as denying them their humanity, their value.

{-+-}