Four Freedoms Speech – YouTube
Above is a video of a segment of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four freedoms speech. In this speech, Roosevelt explains what he believes to be the four most fundamental freedoms of every person, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. This is a good demonstration of American political culture because it shows what political values were considered most important. The emphasis on freedom throughout the speech is a reflection of the importance of freedom to our culture. Keep in mind, this speech was delivered in 1941, the same year the US entered World War II and shortly after the great depression. The American public was uneasy about the state of the world and were looking to their president for reassurance. Roosevelt chose to speak about freedom when he addressed the nation because freedom is a value that was shared by the American people and could make them feel united under a common belief.
I find it interesting that he describes the freedom from want as an economic understanding to secure a healthy life. Historically, the US has valued individualism and the free market under the belief that it was the responsibility of individuals, not the government, to support themselves and provide for their own needs. However, Roosevelt seems to suggest that the government should play some part in making sure that people’s needs are met economically. He also suggests while describing the freedom from fear that there should be a worldwide reduction of armaments (military weapons) to prevent nations from being capable of committing acts of violence against one another. This is particularly interesting because of America’s belief of the right to bear arms, which seems contradictory to this idea. Roosevelt could be interpreted as saying the right to bear arms has more limits on the large scale.
Discussion Questions:
- Which of the four freedoms do you think is most important and why?
- Do the four freedoms accurately represent the rights of all people? Why or why not?
- If you were to add a fifth freedom, what would it be and why?
- Do you think that our freedoms are meant to be vague or well defined and why?
- How do you think Roosevelt’s four freedoms compare to the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness mentioned in the declaration of independence?
I enjoyed this assignment very much and would recommend using it again in the future. It gave me a chance to think more about America’s core values and to think about what the values of a government should be. I was happy to have an excuse to make everyone listen to part of a speech from my favorite president and I had fun dissecting it for my paragraphs.