Liberty "The Two Faces of Freedom" - Editor's Note from Iolite vol.8

I have a dream.

I have a dream that one day my little children will live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

This is a line from Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial that is often repeated: "I Have a Dream."

He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to nonviolent resistance and the civil rights movement. Although he met his tragic end, the "freedom" he portrayed was that of a hero who pursued negative liberty, one of the two freedoms proposed by Isaiah Berlin in "On Liberty."

Berlin's book on freedom breaks down the nature of freedom itself, with its nuance of "negative freedom" - the freedom of individuals to act according to their own will, free from external constraints and coercion - and "positive freedom" - the ability to make decisions according to one's own will, and the resulting nuance of control, with the power and opportunity to realize one's will. It also provides an opportunity to think about the nature of freedom.

The book philosophically explains the danger that the pursuit of positive freedom can sometimes lead to the domination of individuals by groups or nations. With great freedom comes great responsibility.