Foundation, an organization that has promoted the cause of social justice in the USA for nearly 90 years. The essay was entitled ’With Four Freedoms, Four Responsibilities – a Defense of Democratic Values’, and Darren Walker’s argument is that we need to revisit President Franklin D Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms, enunciated as the USA entered the Second World War in 1941, and which were so influential in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Walker asks us to acknowledge that each of Roosevelt’s freedoms carries with it a com- plementary responsibility: With the freedom of speech, comes the responsibility to listen. With the freedom of belief, comes the responsibility to accept. With the freedom from want, Walker concluded: just as each of the Four Freedoms has its complement, so do each of our responsibilities complement the others. If we commit ourselves to listen- ing, we will be more likely to accept others. If we commit to accepting others, we will be more likely to serve those who need us. And if we commit to service, we will under- stand how we should act. Those directives might usefully be read in conjunction with an insight offered by Martin Luther King (also quoted by Walker): ‘Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.’ ◉ comes the responsibility to serve. And with the freedom from fear, comes the responsibility to act.
There are many social constraints in operation in the modern state, from Big Brother vigilance to the tyranny of everyday regulation, but most of us in the United Kingdom would still say that we are proud to live in a free society. The danger is that we take this freedom for granted. There are already precedents for the loss of freedom for individuals and minorities within what were once free and democratic states – and it was with that in mind that the Holocaust Memorial Trust chose ‘the fragility of freedom’ as its theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day. In reflecting on the fragility of freedom at assemblies through the Lent term, I invited everyone to reflect on Martin Niemöller’s reminder, in the wake of the Second World War, that if we don’t stand up for the freedom and rights of others, we cannot expect anyone to protect ours: First they came for the socialists, but I was not a socialist, so I did nothing. Then they came for the communists, but I was not a communist, so I did nothing. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist, so I did nothing. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did nothing. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to stand up for me. In conceding something of our personal liberty in defence of those who are not like us, we, ironically, have the best chance of protecting our own freedoms. Just as I’d finished drafting this article, Dr Cameron Pyke sent me a link to a 2018 essay by the president of the Ford
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