Bonum Certa Men Certa

Guest Post: Free Software Freedom is Not a Freedom of Choice

Article by Jagadees.S

Some freedom rocks



Summary: The concept of "Freedom of Choice" and how the ruling class uses it to give a false impression of "Freedom"

Freedom of choice is a popular idea. Mostly it is associated with markets. Usually when we hear the word "freedom" market automatically comes into our minds. We distribute things through the market. We, the consumer, buy things by paying money to the sellers in the market. If you want soap, you can go to the market and ask for a soap. Shopkeepers give you one when you pay money.



What's in a market

Let's say that initially there is only one company that produces one type of soap which is available in the market. For you it doesn’t matter. After all, the purpose of soap is clean your body. Sometimes it causes you skin allergy or some other issues. You may stop or reduce its use or you may find a workaround to fix/address the issue. Life goes on. Then, after some time, a new company comes up with a new kind of soap. You will be happy to test it and will have found it's better than the first one. So now you have the ‘freedom’ to choose the new product that's in the market.

Later a 3rd company comes into the picture. Now there is competition in the market. More and more products appear in the market. Companies are using advertisement to promote their product. Initially they were telling the properties of the product. But now they are selling a lifestyle. You buy a product that has your favorite star as brand ambassador. You want to be with that specific class of people. It's beautifully mentioned in the book No Logo.

But in some communities people don't have the ability to choose products as they're absent from the market. There, the government is distributing goods as a ration, or limited bases. Sometimes it may be with good intentions that with limited resources they are trying to provide maximum utilization, with intended justice to all. Sometime the rulers may be looting and nothing will be left for people.

Whatever the reason, you see 2 types of market. That makes you think, "which is better?" Market with choice or market without choice? That becomes the million-dollar question to most. Of course all people will support a market with choice. Problem solved. Everything is fine. All of you people, go home.

Reality of Market Freedom

This is the propaganda of the ruling class, intended to hide the facts and distract us from the real freedom. They always do this. Invert ideas that empower people. Lot of things happen when you say "freedom" to mean freedom to choose.

First of all, your action is only a choice between a number of things. You don't have a say. Just choose whatever is available. That makes you just a passive subject. For that you have to pay. That part, most of the time, will not be visible. Those who provide the choices become more important than others. You worship them. Protecting the integrity of them becomes a responsibility for you. They can exert pressure on you. These things all happen invisibly. You will not realise it.

If you consider "freedom" the ability to choose or opportunity to choose a product in the market, then you are undermining the very meaning of freedom. It makes us old passive slaves who just obey the rulers. There is no question about the product, there are no questions about its content, no questions about its price, no questions about the market. All we can do is choose one or another. It's a dictatorship.

So freedom is not an ability to choose.

What is Freedom?

Initially all are free within the limits of nature. Then human institutions like slavery and religion impose restrictions and limits upon humans. After that the word "freedom" comes into existence. People want to break that chain, as everyone wishes to be an independent person who can do whatever s/he wants, just like the ruling class. Meaning, all should get the same opportunity to define the society.

Freedom is not a buying process. It's the ability, for example, to define what buying is, define what the market is, define what the product is, even define what money is. But the reality is that we are living in times where we don't even have the right to know what content is in the foods we eat.

So please don't get so easily fooled by these games -- or words created by the ruling class. Freedom is about people’s power in the society. Not the 1%. It's about who is in charge.

Fight for freedom is a never-ending task

Why?

Because the ruling class will always try and perpetually tries to undermine it for their self interest.

They already came in 100s of groups and companies with 100s of different tactics. Most of the time a freedom-loving majority could not understand these attacks. This is true for the Free software movement as well as other freedom movements experienced. In the case of the Free Software Foundation, it came to such a low level that they fired their own founder based on some lies.

So, we should understand that our freedom is not somebody else's charity or favour. It's a result of our painful struggle for it. To keep the freedom as it is we need always be vigilant and active. Do not get fooled by the tricks they play to enslave us. Free software's freedom is not a freedom of choice. It's the freedom of users to take control of software. Let's unite to defend software users' freedom. Long live the 4 freedoms of software.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Hundreds of Microsoft Layoffs (Net Headcount Decrease) in the United Kingdom
headcount decreased
What Really Matters to Companies is Net Income or Profit (Bankruptcy is Possible Even With High Revenue)
We ought to stop talking about revenue without focusing on actual profit
Carole Cadwalladr Talks About How Big Business Tried to Silence Her (and Why You Might be Next)
Our story is very different from Cadwalladr's for many reasons
LLM Slop and SEO SPAM Take Us Further Away From Facts (the Case of IBM Layoffs)
Some of these can impact Red Hat as well
 
Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Silver Pigs and more Foundation, Disliking Computers
Links for the day
Links 14/04/2025: Russian Attack on Sumy Shows No Intention of Peace, Virgin Australia Admits Overcharging People
Links for the day
The Dilemma of Web Browsers Lying About What They Are (in Order to Bypass Discriminatory Gateways Like Clownflare) Worsens Due to LLM Slop
LLM crawlers/scrapers have made sites more restrictive and hostile towards browsers that are potent but not "famous"
Companies Conspiring to Keep Salaries Down and Undermine Competition
People who do all the practical work are being paid less and made to work for much longer
Links 14/04/2025: Disinformation, Public Disdain for LLMs, and "Lessons on Tyranny"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Ween and Historic Ada Project Management
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 13, 2025
Influencers: Red Hat, Inc's IPO, 1999, post-mortem on the directed share offer to open source developer community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 13/04/2025: Microsoft Cuts to "AI" and Azure (It's Failing), ‘Ghiblification’ Shows Slop Doing Much Harm
Links for the day
Microsoft SLAPPs Against Techrights Losing Momentum
It always backfires
Links 13/04/2025: Tariff Remorse and Chatbots Leak Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/04/2025: No CSS, Spring Scripting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Turns 72 and Will Be Giving Talks in Europe Soon
We have many local copies of his talks as WebM, having converted files uploaded to YouTube
Revisionism and Lies by LLM Slop and Lazy "Media"
What happened to investigation of issues?
Exposing Corruption and Crimes Against Women Isn't a Crime, It's an Imperative
When evil and greedy people are so desperate to silence you it typically gives you more motivation - not less - to do more of the same
EPO Likely Breaking the Law Yet Again, This Time by Using Slop for Patents (to Lower Costs While Producing Monopolies That Cause Ruinous Lawsuits)
Nobody authorised this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 12, 2025
Links 12/04/2025: Tariffs Standoffs and Spam 'Articles' About Patents
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/04/2025: Isle Release 0.0.4 (Alpha) and Pokemon
Links for the day
Links 12/04/2025: Science and "DEI" Dismantled Further in the US
Links for the day
Links 12/04/2025: "Part of the Problem" and "Facebook Is Just Craigslist Now"
Links for the day
New EPO Leaks: Replacing Patent Examiners and Classifiers With Deficient Bots (Without Even Asking for Permission)
Any consultation about it? Any media coverage? No.
The Consensus is Changing and Web Sites View LLMs as Evil, a Malicious Force of Plagiarism and a Source of DDoS
It's not about "AI" but about plagiarism of sorts
Slopwatch: Lots of Fake Articles About "Linux" Infect the Web, Google News Still Promotes These as 'News'
people who go to a site like google.com or Google News or even social control media (where users get links from Google) will be directed to read slop, i.e. pure garbage.
Gemini Links 12/04/2025: Sigrblot and Conway Calamity
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 11, 2025