I used to have long, drawn out arguments with my father about what constitutes 'freedom.' I won't wax poetic about it in your comments here, but the gist of my argument is that simply by virtue of living in a society we give up some of our freedoms. Private property leads to "You can't pitch your tent here or fish from that stream," and so forth. It's ironic how, as a society, we look with disdain upon people that really do cherish and act upon their freedoms by refusing to conform to "norms". I don't think most people even know what 'freedom' means.
And I promised I wouldn't carry on in your comments, and I won't. :) Indeed, if we were all more cognizant of the fact that we share this planet and it's finite resources with all manner of creatures then perhaps we'd be able to keep it beautiful for a very long time.
"simply by virtue of living in a society we give up some of our freedoms." I couldn't agree more! A few months back I was trying to explain to my 6yo what private property meant. His answer to my explanation was the following: "There is no fairness and no freedom!"