FREEDOM!!!
Civilizations have come and gone with their own definitions of freedom... Egypt had an overabundance of slaves who worked the pyramids, Rome was built on the sweat of slaves, The british empire had slaves who worked their industries... Each with high practical value in a time where compassion towards a different race was an alien thought...
In the modern day we proudly stand saying that each individual is born free, irrespective of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation... We respect each individual's privacy, right of speech, right of self expression, right of life itself... Compared against a people bound in chains and forced to labor, we are free; But are we truly free???
A bird can fly over many countries, does it need to get visa? A whale swims in any sea, does it have to stay in international waters? A lunatic can do anything he wants, does he have to justify his acts?
Are we free to follow our hearts-desire? Does the modern society promote free existance, or does it bind us down with principles, ethics and rules... Would you like to live in a society where everbody does all the right things because they are scared of doing the wrong things, or would you like to live in a society where everybody does all the right things because they simply dont want to do the wrong things???
So to expliot a cliché ... To legislate or to educate... that is the question!!!
So to expliot a cliché ... To legislate or to educate... that is the question!!!
posted by Frankenstein at
5:05 AM
3 Comments:
I think we always talk about freedom in a relative rather than an absolute sense. So if we ask the question 'Are we freer(?) than any generation that lived before us? The answer would be undoubtably YES! Forget the nice visions of happy villagers living in peace and harmony with nature. Think more in terms of harsh existance and struggle for survival on a daily basis, no choice but to follow the trade you are born into. Travel around a local area, no further. Things we take for granted would make them cringe. So we are 'free' in having more choices open to us, although later generations would probably mock us for being bound with so much restrictions...(would they do it in another blog? ;-) )
Oh, totally superflous but couldn't resist, your yell for 'FREEDOM!!!' reminds me of the final scenes of Braveheart.. heh heh... I just happen to like that movie.
By
seekerak, at 5:29 AM
I think we are drifting from the materialistic / physical freedom to spiritual freedom here... and trying to define one in terms of the other leads to interesting complications... because if we simply think of freedom in the most correct sense, true freedom can only be achieved by letting go of everything material, which I think niether of us are anywhere close to doing. Actually every step I take I walk further from THAT path (sigh and a wink). So pending that path, lets simply consider how free we want to be, whatever one choses to say in an ideal sense, the truth is we are affected by the perspectives of the others, simply because no one exists in an vacuum. I am not concerned with the society, it has so many conflicting rules and norms for measurement anyway that one can only smile at it and do your own thing. Rather, I am talking about the people around you, the people who you care about and by that definition, people whose opinions TOO you care about.
It is easy to take up the torch of individualism given the society we live in at the moment, but we can never forget that true beauty comes of harmony and co-existance, you don't antagonise others through sheer mulishness, you do not bend over backwards to every persons whim too, but you find the complementary balance which makes all of you capable of better things than either individually.
There are several threads to be picked up here, how free you are, and what you want to be and finally about individualism and co-existance. I'm sure each of them will get addressed in due course since after all, we're still young.
By
seekerak, at 9:40 PM
Jeez these comments never show up!
By
seekerak, at 3:11 AM
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