What is your freedom worth to you? Is freedom a form of enslavement? I guess the last question could be put in a different way: what is true freedom?
Studies show that people live longer, happier lives when given a certain extent of freedom, but buckle when faced with too many choices or too much responsibility. Too much and too little freedom both lead to depression.
Some people live under the illusion that they have freedom. College anywhere? Yeah right. Shop there? Not if you're Muslim (unfortunately this is truth for some even in the US).
And some live under the illusion that they have no freedom. No time to work out? Wake up earlier. Can't drive? There's a thousand solutions to that one...
I'm especially thankful for the freedoms my country, socio-economic status, gender, and parents have given me. I count myself among the luckiest in the world, and I think it's admirable that my parents have given up some of their freedoms to support mine. They deserve more than I could give them.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
National Freedom Day
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4 comments:
Sentence five does not automatically follow from sentence four, I think. It sounds more like the establishment's love of confusion by non sequitor, and is prime control propaganda. The Age of Reason includes an interesting argument about the difference between freedom and independence.
Haha sorry. I'm not sure if you mean my writing doesn't flow?
I don't think that the study I presented was a test of true freedom, of course. I do find it fascinating that at least a perceived increase in freedom makes people live longer and healthier.
Hmm. What is the difference between freedom and independence? Do elaborate. :)
No, Maria, I wouldn't presume to do that unless you were requesting constructive criticism of your prose style. I was referring to the two concepts expressed, which I assumed were being quoted from some study or studies.
The Age of Reason is fundamentally about an existentially angst-ridden man trying to decide what to do about the two women in his life (a somewhat Gallic preoccupation, you might say, with which I've identified a few times.) To sum up the conclusion in a single sentence:
The concept of freedom includes being free to willingly give up one's independence.
Sartre takes over 100,000 words to get there, but he does so very engagingly.
*blinks* I just read about Groundhog Day, and here it's National Freedom Day? I'm missing out on a lot of pivotal "Days" here <_< Thank goodness I can look over here and catch up.
Freedom is like the Hand of Glory - light for the eyes of the beholder. Or something.
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