The Case of Absolute Freedom A vandal hit the wall beside the stairs of a building of a university run by a local government. It bore the character of the culprit as he was able to confidently inscribe it in a surface coated with a light yellow paint. Written in broad strokes, it said: Do what you want. This is a free country. An expression of freedom? Definitely! Obviously, with no hesitation! This is the reason why it had caught the attention of the viewers -- students, professors and administrative personnel. Look into the thought and emotion of the wall writer as I would call it. It reminds me of three things. 1) Jean-Paul Sartes Concept of Freedom. Man is condemned to be free. A bold pronouncement from Sarte, he enunciated the plight of mans freedom and the way it must be exercised to make oneself and to build ones life. Nothing should hinder mans manipulation of his life. His freedom is his being. His freedom is his raw material to create a life he wishes to live. So the success of mans life depends on his maximization of his freedom. One lives a successful and happy life because he chooses to have it. If his life becomes melancholic, nostalgic and depressed, then one has to put the blame on his choice. Ones free choice defines who he is who is beyond definitions and labels. 2) Personal Love for Freedom. Perhaps, the wall writer loves being free because he loves himself. Freedom is at the heart of being a human person. The mind and heart that is free makes man and the world free. The wall writer wrote it on the wall, and it only entails breaking the walls of divisions, misunderstanding, dictatorship, hypocrisy and all these malignant sicknesses of society. Freedom for man! Freedom for human society! 3) The Filipino Society struggling in the darkness of capitalist and oligarchic interests. The wall writer may have been aware that the society we live in is in the dark struggles of dictatorial and oligarchic social control mocking every bit of freedom an ordinary man enjoys. It is undeniable in the worsening situations of poverty, corruption, vicious oligarchy, and social disintegration. Freedom has gradually died in the age of the panopticon. If Friedrich Nietzsche boldly said, God is Dead, so I also pronounce this morbid reality that Freedom is Dying. Three points that came into my mind, a flashback of my philosophy days. Yet, it has taught me a lesson that young people of today is being disillusioned by those who promote absolute freedom, which actually a misnomer. For freedom to be authentic, it has to be responsible freedom, the kind of freedom that erases illusions of absolutism, takes full responsibility of ones actions, and makes the world a better place to live in for human beings, animals, plants, and other essential elements of these mysterious world.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:29:53 +0000
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