Freedom. What is it? In my own words, I can describe freedom as being able to choose for yourself and having to make a decision without anyone or anything forcing you or influencing you to make that choice or that decision.
And by saying that I can say that my own definition of freedom may be superficial and a bit vague. Furthermore, judging by that very definition above, I can contradict myself and make a bold statement that : Freedom is a fallacy.
I mean, wow. Way to undermine myself. But it's true, at least in my mind. There is a theory and a concept that the thing I call freedom is an illusion, nothing but a beautifully crafted illusion.
You might have heard of the words destiny, fate and or kismet. These words tell us a tale that whatever we do or achieve in this life has been prepared before hand, and have been decided to happen long before you even existed. Others may believe in them, and as the moment they do, they are already giving up the concept of freedom in my own interpretation. I mean, how can you be free if you believe that there is some path that is already decided for you? I can't wrap my head around that irony.
Freedom to love. In this day and age, we all would like to believe that we are all free to fall in love with whomever we choose. And I hate to appear an anti-romantic person but, are we? Are we really free to choose who we love? Is it really in our hands, the choice of who it is that will make our hearts go berserk and cause an annoying case of arrhythmia? Let us delve in a little bit deeper about this. Let me ask you a question. Who do you love? For young wholesome people without real experience in romance and all that stuff, they may answer : "Family". They love their family. Of course, who doesn't love their family? And a better question, did you choose to love your family? Did you choose your family? Okay, let me hear that resounding NO.
For a more intimate response, you might say the you love your partner. So my question is, and consider this question in all honesty, did you choose to fall in love with your partner? Did you just pick out a person from a crowd and decided, a-huh! You're gonna be the love of my life. Did you? Well if not, think back to the time you first met, or to the time when you knew that you're in love with that person. How did you come to that moment? Did you choose to be in that moment? Was it by chance? Was it by design? But I am pretty sure that it was not your doing alone.
They say that we have the right to suffrage. At least in our country they think that we have the freedom to vote. That's exactly right we have the freedom to vote but that's the only choices we have, to vote or not to. We are not free to decide who we want to vote for, nor we are free to decide what the outcome of the elections will be.
I guess what I am trying to say is that freedom is a beautifully fabricated idea. It may be true that we are free to choose whatever we want, but the choices are already there, we will just have to pick among them. If we are truly free we should have a say on what choices will we be given.
The concept of Nature versus Nurture also came to my mind with this freedom topic. Neither nature nor nurture gives the total freedom to the individual. Let's use a person with a violent tendency. His tendency to resort to violence may have come from a traumatic experience, long history of abuse and other psychological factors, hence nurture. It may also have come from his genes or his DNA, hence Nature. But whichever the case may be, he was not given a choice not to be a violent man. Can you see the point?
And of course, after saying all of those things, ultimately the choice is in your hands to find merit in what I have said, or is it?
