Liberty is synonymous with freedom and human rights, with people being able to self-determine the outcomes in their lives. Being able to move freely from place to place, to have unlimited access to food and water, to own things and have a home— these are all aspects that arise when we consider liberty. But all of these things are aspects of only one kind of liberty. There are, in a very broad sense, two kinds of liberty— internal and external.
The things listed above are all part of external liberty. Freedom of expression, freedom from tyranny and oppression, the ability to have your voice heard in how the external circumstances of your life are shaped. This is the liberty of the enlightenment, the purported liberty of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. This type of liberty, though, cannot be guaranteed and relies on a confluence of circumstances, other people’s decisions and behaviors and right place/right time.
In examining US history, we see the dependency of external liberty. If you are a landowning white man, you’ve had access to these freedoms since this country’s inception. If you’re a white woman, you had to wait a century and a half to vote.1 If you are black, you weren’t free from slavery for the first 80 years, and you still aren’t able to come out from its shadow without the specter rearing its vile head. If you’re gay, you weren’t able to get married until 2015— a mere 7 years ago. Not even a decade.
Even in a country where external liberty is supposedly guaranteed, there are plenty of examples where entire groups of people have been marginalized, vilified or out-rightly denied. Unfortunately, external liberty seems to be a far-off dream for most people, even those who are fortunate enough to live in a country that attempts these ideals. Many others are far worse off.
Then there is internal liberty. This type of liberty is the freedom that is gained when you renounce senseless desires, when you act with virtue, when you find peace in the present. This is the liberty of mindfulness and Stoicism, of the inner citadel that can never be violated from outside— unless we let it.
Internal liberty, unlike external liberty, cannot be taken away. It can only be given away, when we fail to fortify our inner citadel, when we give in to extraneous and dangerous desires, when we begin to count on things outside of our control. This is where the tension between the kinds of liberty emerges: we give up internal liberty when we count on external liberty— even while every human deserves both.
Just as some people have much easier access to external liberty, some people have easier access to internal liberty. For many, this results in the inner citadel being a house of cards, ready to topple when the first winds of real adversity begin to blow. For those who fought for every inch of serenity they have, who established their fortress brick by painful brick, awaits true liberty, able to withstand the blows that keep coming.
Is this fair? Absolutely not. But it is true.
Take the example of the Stoic teacher Epictetus, who was a slave for the first 30 years of his life. Whose leg was brutally broken due to a fit of rage from his master. Who was forever destined to walk with a limp, reminding him of his servitude.
When Epictetus was freed, he devoted his life to Stoicism, a philosophy that he was able to study while a slave. Through his dedication, he was able to help others cultivate virtue, giving his pupils a “hard winter’s training” in order to make sure that they were building their citadels out of the real stuff. He went on to say that “no man is free who is not a master of himself”— and this is where true liberty lies.
But what is the vital employment of this internal liberty? Of being able to weather the storms of fate, of circumstance, of other people?
To fight where others cannot. To teach others how to master themselves. To take the blows that others can’t take. To act with courage, to bring about justice, to live with wisdom and to know when to moderate. To work to form the outside world of external liberty to match the internal one— working to balance the scale for those who need it and elevating all people so that liberty, of all kinds, is within reach.
Life may not be fair, but it is our duty to constantly work to make it a little fairer, a little more inclusive, a little more livable— for everyone.
Edited by Abigail McKay Cherry
It is a common misconception that women of all races in the United States were equally entitled to their vote with the passing of the 19th Amendment but, as with so many things, that was not how the law played out for women in marginalized communities. For more information, visit here
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Great Job Noah and Abby!!!
I love the reality check of the history on marginalized communities 👍🏼😊
Well done, very timely read as well.