ON ABSOLUTE FREEDOM

[written on Tuesday, July 24, 2012] "Can we really be absolutely free?", they ask. The answer to this question depends upon how one perceives freedom. Freedom can be defined in two different ways on one end of the spectrum, the total absence of rules and authority; on the other, a balance between the exercise of rights and obligations. For a person who thinks of freedom as a life without rules and accountability, where one can do anything with impunity and without fear of apprehension, absolute freedom would prove impossible to attain at least within our societal frameworks. Human society and interaction is rooted in order. Take rules, authority, and accountability out of the equation, and the result is chaos. Freedom with full emphasis on self, and without respect for the freedom of others that is, damn everyone else this kind of freedom is, I believe, not freedom at all. Instead, true freedom can be expressed this way: My freedom ends where your freedom begins. True freedom is the exercise of ones rights within their proper boundaries that is, without infringing upon the rights of other people or trampling upon them. True freedom is recognizing that you are not alone in this world and, thus, in considering whether to push through with your actions, you must think of their consequences and of their possible effects on the people around you. Some people may argue that such an understanding of freedom is flawed because it is fettered by standards they deem unnecessary. For these people, laws and rules are yokes, things that imprison, things that humanity would do better without. I disagree. It is the fact that freedom is fettered by laws and rules and the dictates of conscience that makes it absolute freedom ruled by rationality and compassion, not by impulse and mere chance. ---Now, if only every person on the planet would think and act with due regard to others, I hold in my heart that we would be absolutely free a family rushing forth into the Paradise of a bright future, not misguided people struggling against each other, angry and bruised, in the loneliness of the dark.