[Nyororin]

To redirect this in some weak hope of keeping it from jumping into bash territory...

I find it interesting how the US tends to present freedom as a uniquely US concept. Well, maybe not the US in any official capacity, but in the popular media.
I have found that the freedoms of the US aren't unique, and that the US is not the only country to grant their citizens the rights that they have.

Is the emphasis on freedom a carry over from an earlier era when freedom was not something common? Or is it some sort of misinterpretation?

I have been stunned on occasion by people telling me they would never live in Japan because it was not a "free" country.