What do FDR's Four Freedoms mean today?

A valid question BBC's Reith Lectures didn't answer

Photo by Alexander London on Unsplash

As a dedicated listener of the Reith Lectures, the BBC’s annual mind-expanding series named after the corporation’s first director-general, it’s hard to explain just how inadequate they were in 2022. The idea was big and overarching; the execution bitty and unsatisfying.

The whole concept revolved around FDR’s Four Freedoms, the fundamentals he proposed that people “everywhere in the world” ought to enjoy. These were, according to the US president:

• Freedom of speech

• Freedom of worship

• Freedom from want

• Freedom from fear

FDR outlined those four freedoms in January 1941, nearly a year before the attack on Pearl Harbour and the US entry into WWII. In December 1941, the world changed for America and arguably, so did the way it addressed the four freedoms proposed by its president.

Some 80 years on, what do FDR’s Four Freedoms mean now? It’s a valid and fascinating question, one that the Reith Lectures, unfortunately, didn’t even start to answer. The first spe…