ICE BERLIN PART 11 ( the plot thickens)

Yesterday a few beginnings were made with berlin and the theme of positive freedom or liberty. But Berlin also wrote about a "Negative Freedom" which is commonly seen to be one essential aspect for a democracy. Yet at the same time we find many already saying that Berlin is but another brick in the wall of right wing and "ruling class" ideology. How might we think on this and work with this in terms of today? One way is to take a quick look at Zygmunt Bauman ( the respected Polish and UK professor ). He wrote :-

" To be an individual does not necessarily mean to be free. The form of individuality on offer in late-modern or postmodern society, and indeed most common in this kind of society - privatised individuality - means essentially unfreedom. ... ...( page 63) ...
That freedom which has been declared to arrive is the aspect of the human condition to which Isaiah Berlin gave the philosophical name of Negative Freedom ; an aspect which in popular use has been spelled out as FREEDOM TO CHOOSE, and in its popularist version as LESS STATE, MORE MONEY IN THE POCKET ( as Margaret Thatcher unforgettably excpressed it the liberty TO GO TO A DOCTOR OF MY CHOICE AT A TIME OF MY CHOICE) This really existing freedom is explained by the absence of constraints imposed by a political authority... " (page 72) The words from Bauman above are from his book " In Search of Politics" 1998, Polity Press.

Without going against Bauman we can quickly see that this kind of really existing freedom ( this icy negative freedom) is but another FREEDOM SO LONG AS YOU CAN AFFORD IT.
No wonder that left wing types fail to fall into the Berlin bunker.