Hi, sonofthewind -

Many Agents and Readers were already aware of the distinction between freedom and liberty. That's why they're wondering what point you're trying to make by bringing it up.

The real issue is not "How are the terms defined in a dictionary"? but "What is the -spirit- of what's intended when a particular term is used?"

The irony would be in any insistence that the dictionary definitions of freedom and liberty must be adhered to in our day-to-day efforts to communicate with one another. :) A dictionary is a guide, not an immutable ruler. How we use language determines what the dictionary will be made to say, not the other way around.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," wrote Emerson.

Most, I think, when speaking of either freedom or liberty in everyday conversation probably mean liberty in the sense they perceive as intended in the language, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Apart from the usefulness of living cooperatively together in community, it appears men and women are "social creatures", needing to be in or have available to them the company of others. Thus, solitary confinement is recognized as harsher punishment than being in the general population. Same with shunning, or banishment.

That inherent inclination to be with others of one's own kind gives rise to rules and regulations, overt stipulations of what is or is not acceptable within such community.

Agreeing to abide by those agreed-upon constraints is the price of admission. With those constraints comes the more pleasing aspects of community living, whatever protections and other blessings are part of it.

As a wise man once said, "You can have anything you want...and everything that goes with it." One is free to choose to step outside community and be a "moose in the wild", leaving behind not only the constraints but also the protections and blessings.

--hobie