Back in 12th grade our teacher asked us to write an short essay about a Freedom. Maybe we could choose our topic ourselves, I can’t really remember. I found my take on the topic a couple of days ago and thought I will share it. I had to translate it to English and therefore the content got a little bit edited but the main point is still the same. So here is my 18 year old view on the matter:
AdvertisementsImagine you were free of all duties and constraints the society and the laws impose on you. How nice it would be not to go to school: sleep as much as you want and have no conflicts with teachers. Apart from that also no education. Doesn’t sound too bad to wander through life with no expectations for a well-paid job, maybe even to drown in poverty and end up depressed over dissatisfaction. Not to mention the vicious circle one may end up to that eats you up inside. Nice perspective, isn’t it? Is this kind of freedom really desirable? Are these really our ideals, or is the ideal of politically inflicted compulsory schooling chosen on the basis that it offers better opportunities to make free decisions. Does this mean schooling actually supports freedom even though you are not free to choose schooling? Do you really have to be forced to be free or how do I have to understand this?
It is a question of how you define Freedom. Are you free if you have a fixed set of decisions or if you are free to choose whatever you like to? Essentially one could assume the thoughts of people are completely free. Everyone can think about what they want. However, aren’t our thoughts a product of our environment, steered by the knowledge and intellect of ourselves? Therefore are the so-called free thoughts bound by the ability of an individual person to think. Even the thought of aim for individuality of every person is banal. Aren’t people trying to be free through individuality? But I argue these thoughts trap the people. The constant self imposed constraints to find oneself and aim to be different from others block the way to be free. Shouldn’t we once really try to leave our thoughts free passage? Without influences from the outside and thus find our own way to reach true freedom of thought.
This definition of freedom would mean to live in a total isolation and loneliness, because this is the only way to make sure that no external impressions influence the independence of thought.
I am sure that everyone has their own definition of freedom but we are able to decide which one we use. In this case, I took the liberty to make my own thoughts about freedom. Though these thoughts are coined by my surroundings, as probably for everyone else too.
Such a mobile computer, also called notebook or laptop, helps me to widen my freedom, because with it I am not bound to an electric output anymore. As I also use wifi, I can also connect with my friends and surf the internet. Of course there is no constraint that you have to move freely around, just the possibility to explore some freedom. To use it is up to me. However, this so-called freedom is restrained by the capacity of the battery and the range of the wifi signal.
All these restrictions… That poses the question how free ‘free’ actually is. Can you reach total Freedom or just live life with certain liberties? I would argue the latter. Not even this text is produced at my own will and wouldn’t have been written without the saying of my teacher. Nevertheless, it is fun to write this text, and I had the liberty to write the text as I wish with the content I decide. I made a decision which was more or less unconscious and just started to type what comes to my mind. This way, I thought, the text would be authentic and less influenced from the outside which manipulates my thoughts in a way. It should have been coined by the spontaneity of the moment. Therefore, I think that the text reached the best possible degree of Freedom. Furthermore, I wanted to achieve that the written seems less forced.
As one can see, I am also aiming to live in freedom and to free my thoughts. However I am still convinced to only be able to live in a world with constraint liberties and freedom, because as thoughts are externally influenced, so are also many perks like education bound to constraints. Borders are also imposed by the rights of others. It is not possible to live oneself out if it constraints others.
To pick up the example dismissing compulsory schooling from the beginning, another disadvantage of this form of freedom is the probable retrogression of humanity, because humans tend to adapt to their surroundings, i.e. in this case the extension to be too lazy to think. Finally people might resign and stick with their situation as it is.
All in all is to say that: Complete Freedom is an impossible thing.
