Is freedom a non-negotiable value?
Translated from the original.
Today, January 23, is World Freedom Day. The date, created by the UN and proclaimed by UNESCO, calls for reflection. A natural right, observable in nature in the refusal of beings to submit to confinement, freedom is the essence of modern thought. Through its exercise in a human guise, it brought Man into modern reality as the center of existential and social discussions. It is what underpins the principle of the pursuit of happiness, a philosophical postulate that gives meaning to life.
But what are the limits of freedom? It is not possible to invoke the principle of freedom to violate the freedoms of others. For example: freedom of expression, as a fundamental democratic value, does not give the individual the right to advocate the persecution of social groups. Someone who preaches, hypothetically, on their social media profile the extermination of Jews is not exercising freedoms but violating them.
Nor do the salutary economic freedoms, another modern pillar, grant the right to commit fraud in the market. The dishonest person, the fraudster, instrumentalizes a supposed freedom of action to tarnish the principle of good faith, dear to any negotiation.
Freedom of the press, without which democracy is unviable, is no justification for the practice of extortion by news outlets. The history of twentieth-century Brazil records several occasions on which media groups ran public campaigns against citizens or companies, promptly suspended when certain wishes were satisfied. There is no freedom to blackmail.
That is why liberalism, as a democratic system that embraces civil, political, and social freedoms, is so complete. It admits within itself the checks and balances that impose limits on arbitrariness, whether from the action of the State, of economic groups, or of individuals. Freedom is a non-negotiable value, but its exercise demands individual responsibility and commitment to the community.