A Moral Order of Human Freedom and Rights

from "The Four Freedoms," Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 6 January, 1941

The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment -- The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations. …

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. …

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.

Commentary: With remarkable efficiency of words Roosevelt connected human rights and freedom with a moral order extending beyond the American experience to embrace the whole world. This source of American national security promises to lead to world stability/security. This people-centered world view as a basis for meeting global vulnerabilities is a radical departure from traditional, nation-based schemes of effecting international relations. A doctrine of human security (in contrast to national security) is a signature of an emerging globalization.

Search yourself: Do you agree that freedom--everywhere and for everyone--is the basis of a world moral order and path to a secure American nation and a secure world? Are there reasonable limits to freedom, specifically freedoms of speech and religion? What role does economic justice play in the scheme of civil liberties?