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To make the unqualified statement “I am free” or “I live in a free country” is to assert nothing. It is essentially like saying “I am big”. Without some context to refer to, the word “free” means no more than the word “big”. You are free, probably, to read the next sentence in this essay and to draw your next breath. Beyond that, your freedom is wholly contingent on the vagaries of circumstance. Social freedom has no natural guarantor that stands above the social context that defines it.
Yes, but I'm definitely taller than most people in North Korea, both metaphorically speaking and probably in reality too. My point is that the qualifications usually exist as a socially understood set of definitions. Right?