Freedom and independence are distinct and often mutually exclusive
Evidence
Thereās a good deal of confusion in much of the world, and particularly in the Middle East, between two different words and two different concepts: freeĀ dom and independence. In many parts of the region the two words are used as if they were synonyms. They are not synonyms. They mean very different things. And much of the world has now learned painfully not only that it is possible to have one without the other, but in many situations the two appear to be mutually exclusive. Some of the empires gave far greater freedom in the sense of individual rights to their subjects than were ever accorded by the independent states that arose on the ruins of empires. Nowadays some rather bitterly deļ¬ne independence as the right to be kicked in the teeth by a compatriot instead of being hit on the head by a foreigner. ā Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 824
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to postcolonial independence debates and the broader theme in Things Fall Apart about what replacing colonial rule actually delivered. ā connects to: Even prohibitions and coercion cannot limit freedom; only being-objectified by another can. ā Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay onā¦, 1230; Others constitute the situation that gives individual freedom its concrete content ā Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle ofā¦, 453; Freedom and unfreedom form a double bind under identity ā Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,ā¦, 2558 (+5 more)