The Free Beer Speech House: discussing the meaning of the word “free”
Freedom, glorious freedom.
Once upon a time, I took a class based on a single question: “what is freedom?” We meandered through US history, identifying several distinct stages in the evolution of the definition of “freedom.” I was horrified to learn, during a discussion, that so many of my classmates wanted what I will call “freedom from information.” Ah yes – Professor Sandage had a way of bringing the ugliest truths to the surface, for all to witness.
On the one hand, I can understand this desire for freedom from information: telemarketing, advertising, spam, the scrolling headlines at the bottom of a newscast… well, any unsolicited attempt at selling things you don’t care about. On the other hand, I think we need more information instead of less, and we need effective tools to filter and manage that information so we only see what we care about.
The term “freedom” is muddied by historical contexts, but also through the process of etymological erosion. With that said, I want to take a moment to discuss the expression, “free as in speech, not beer.”