The Four Freedoms: The Fifth Freedom, FDR and E.B. White

In his Four Freedoms Speech (Annual Message to Congress January 6, 1941) Roosevelt proposed four fundamental freedoms that all people should have. His "four essential human freedoms" included some phrases already known to Americans from the Bill of Rights, and some news ones: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These became symbols of America’s ideals during World War II. 

In 1943, Norman Rockwell created four pictures each depicting one of the four freedoms. You can read more about these and view all four here: 

The Four Freedoms 

Somewhere amidst all the noise since the 2024 November election these four freedoms, never entirely a lived experienced in America, continue to be under siege. Perhaps a long in the works agenda is coming to fruition in America - that of finally dismantling any semblance of these freedoms; any foundation with cracks in it will eventually erode.

But let’s not blame some illusive pattern of history for the disintegration of these freedoms. The accountability lays with us in not recognizing the signs, an inattentiveness to the time in which we live. Erik Rittenberry says, “Modernity is that abyss we ceaselessly strive to smother with superficial commotion”. Superficial commotion – let us count the ways- streaming irrelevancy from yes you guessed it social media in all facets. But again, let’s not blame the technology platforms or even their creators.

Choice abounds – Choice, surely the Fifth Freedom – although I haven’t seen it spoken about in any meaningful way. Choice under capitalism has come to mean consumer choice for a ridiculous amount of product to address every possible nuance in taste and diet. And during our bewildered consideration of what granola to buy our four freedoms are rapidly dissolving.

What if we widened our idea of choice to mean something entirely different and inclusive of activities that support the Four Freedoms? What if we chose where to place our attention – to community actions supporting those in need (freedom from want); to immigrant populations (freedom from fear); to defense of students protesting the inhumane treatment of displaced people from their homeland (freedom of speech); to toleration and practice of numerous spiritual beliefs with no repercussions from political policies, using religion as a weapon.

What if we understood that to respond is different than to react. E.B. White astutely observes:

How contagious hysteria and fear are! In my henhouse are two or three jumpy hens, who, at the slightest disturbance, incite the whole flock to sudden panic- to the great injury, nervously and sometimes physically, of the group. This panic is transmitted with great rapidity; in fact, it is almost instantaneous, like the wheeling of pigeons in air, which seem all to turn and swoop together as though controlled electrically by a remote fancier.

It’s not hard to make comparisons to what is occurring in some “resistance” groups that believe their cause and actions and fears are fully justified against the “other side.” This is not to say that there aren’t real forces at work to seemingly destroy, or perhaps just ignore, FDR’s Four Freedoms. And, to quote E.B. White again, “ because of its fundamental strictures, fascism does not seem to me to admit any compromise or any rationalization…”

A final word of caution: through my own participation I have noted a growing division (as if we need more division) among people about exactly the most “effective” means of engagement. Some are at war; some are acting from places of fear and anger, some are following their chosen organization’s agenda. Many will get swept up in a “contagious hysteria and fear” which will “incite the whole flock to sudden panic.." The history of the settlements and agreements after World War I point to the now widely held consensus among historians that the treatment of Germany after World War I (one of punishment) did significantly lead to the economic and social issues in Germany which, in turn, left space for Hitler as savior. So let us be careful and thoughtful about a “war” among Americans. And let us take a minute or many to self examine our emotional state - to notice if we are responding from our desire to maintain our freedoms or reacting from places of division, fear and anger. 

Many people are called to action today in America and across the globe to defend these freedoms. Each individual will choose to engage differently. Some may choose not to engage politically at all - but there are many choices - and choices, if one chooses to engage at all, that can enhance the communities in which we live. Through literature, poetry and art our lives are enriched and expanded as we take time to contemplate our world and allow space for renewal and centering. Each person needs to respond, not react, carefully and according to “the dictates of [their] own conscience.” The choice of engaging in a meaningful and thoughtful way is available to everyone. Let us allow everyone their freedom of choice.

By Democracy Is Us Board and Council Member, Susan Wright