Saturday Core Brief — The Cultural Foundations of Freedom

Freedom Isn’t What You Think It Is — A Cultural Analysis

Freedom is not one thing, and it is not universal. Each society builds its version of freedom based on its culture.

This week’s Editions showed how we define freedom depends on cultural choices:
Who it serves, who controls it, what it’s for, when it’s used, and how safe it feels.

To see this clearly, we can look at three nations, the United States, Japan, and Sweden, each standing at a different point on the cultural map. Their systems work because they fit the values of the people who live in them.