True Freedom

I hope this doesn't come across as too deep, because I don't believe it is. But in my reading I have come across an idea about human freedom which I had never heard before, and dearly wish I had heard it eons ago. If it is correct, and I argue that it is, it cuts to the very heart of the problems we have in the world, not just today, but essentially for all of human history.

Simply put, real freedom is not personal autonomy. It is not the right and ability to do what is right for you, whatever that means and whatever it entails. True freedom is the right to do what is objectively right. 

That is a fantastic little statement, if I do say so myself. It takes off the table any and all ideas that the individual person, or by extension society, has the right to determine what is right. If we are free it means we are free to do what is right, to do what is good for ourselves and those around us, and not whatever we please based on our collective psychology or personal preference. True freedom would never allow error. It has too much dignity to do that.

The secular world doesn't like that idea because it naturally involves judgment. We ain't s'posed to do that. Never mind that we can and must judge. Must I point out that saying 'don't judge' is, in a very real and tangible way, a judgment? Saying we cannot judge is a self-contradiction. It is, quite frankly, nonsense.

In truth no one has the freedom to do wrong. They may indeed do wrong as a result of free will. We may even have to tolerate certain poor actions for various practical reasons. But no one is in any rational philosophic sense right to do wrong. It is beyond true human freedom, which is the right to act rightly. And only that.