not both ways

You cannot have it both ways. Either you opt for Protestant freedom which grants you more freedom of expression but less freedom of action, or you opt for Catholic freedom which restricts your freedom of expression but allows you an ampler freedom of action.

Under Estado Novo the Catholic conception of freedom prevailed. You could not say certain things in public, namely contesting authority. But, that being done, you could do virtually everything you wanted.

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With 25 de Abril and specially with the country joininig the European Union, the Protestant idea of freedom prevailed. You can now protest freely gainst authority, you can even insult all sorts of authorities that nothing happens to you: the prime-minister and the President, the priests and the Pope, your teachers, the mayor of your city, your boss, senior citizens, the judge of your court district, even your father and mother. What you are not as free to do is to act.

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Do you feel free to make a confidential phone call? Are you free to produce agricultural products or being a fisherman? What about your freedom to eat a bifana when you go to a soccer match or drink an aguardente of medronho when you are with friends? And what about your freedom to drive a car, when the police even checks the size of your tires? How free are you not to pay a tax that you have already paid but the Tax Department says it is still due? If you are a smoker, how free do you feel to smoke a cigarette in a restaurant? And what about your freedom to give a home-made cake to the poor of your parochy? How free are you to drive in Lisbon at more than 50 km/h? If you are a religious person, how free do you feel to express your religious sentiments here in the blogosphere?

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Surely, it is police, the multiple forms of police that are restricting your freedom to act, and they are growing in number year after year. Over the last few years you must have noticed the emergence in your country of at least three new forms of police: the parking police; the tax police, that is the Tax Department endowed with police powers; and ASAE that sophisticated form of police that more than any other is designed to restrict your freedom of action. And beware, a new form of police will soon emerge in your neighbourhood, if it is not already there. It is your neighbour himself. This is Protestant freedom when you look at the other side of the same coin.