Since the 67th Independence Day was looming nearby, this seemed like the most natural thing to talk about “Freedom”.
Since we liked to keep discussions logical, we started by trying to define Freedom, rather than just jump into it blindly.
Our initial attempts to define this seemingly innocent word, turned out to be surprisingly imprecise. The first definition of freedom that came into scrutiny was – “The ability of being able to do anything out of free will.” Well, at first look, this definition looks innocuous enough, and it goes well with the conventional view of freedom as well. But now, the question arises – “So you do something out of free will. Cool. But every action you do arises out of some desire, and your desires come from external stimuli. So doesn't that mean you’re freedom is dependent on external stimuli?”.
There’s no logical loophole here; this definition can lead to no other conclusion. One might ask, “Yeah, my freedom is dependent on external stimuli. So what’s the big deal?” Well, since we’re all trying to have a logical discussion here, devoid of personal opinions and prejudices, congrats, you've just sabotaged the whole point of it, by trying to define Freedom in a relative manner, which may be differently perceived based on different external stimuli!
From that point onward, it was a roller-coaster ride, each of us trying to define Freedom in an absolute manner. It didn't go as well we had expected it to; the seemingly different definitions that we all came up with were all space-dependent, time-dependent, or person-dependent. In short, they were all variants of the very same definition that we had come up with earlier. They were all relative, and nope, none of us could live with that. So we tried to go about it in the opposite manner. We tried to develop a definition from the very characteristics of freedom that we expect in a society. Since all humans are encompassed by the society, any definition that we come up with in this manner would have to be absolute. Well, there is a serious caveat here of course; the way in which one interprets the society is subject to change from person to person, and in addition to that, we do not know of any other model of society apart from the current one, so in a way, this definition would also have to be relative; society-dependent.
But this didn't bother us much, since the society we know is not going to change anytime in the near future. So we decided to go ahead anyway, keeping this in mind. In a society, you have rules, and being part of the society, you are expected to follow them. So normally, one doesn't go against the society for fear of the rules, and the consequences that follow. So here comes a very interesting, though subtle point; it is fear that actually restricts you from doing actions. Once you think in that direction, things become clear with amazing clarity. The reason why a child dares to do just about anything, and why you are scared of sleeping in classes; fear. And where does this fear come from? Rules. Punishment. In short, information. And the ones who are in direct control of such information are the ones in power, the ones who are truly fearless. And now, we have a clear picture of what’s actually going on (in the current society at least!); the society controls the flow of information (rules), and in fear of that (or opposed to such fear), we perform actions. So where does freedom come in all of this? Well, think of this way: you've been long told that you have various “freedoms” in society. When you actually think about it, every such freedom comes with a set of rules which you are expected to follow, failure of which results in punishment. So, the “freedom” which you experience is a residue of fear, a pseudo-freedom. It’s an illusion making it seem as if you’re in control of your actions, whereas in reality, someone else is pulling the threads.
So what exactly is absolute freedom? We came up with an interesting way of defining it-“It is the acceptance of the working of the society, and still perform actions without fear.” When you’re aware of the rules in the society, and still are not perturbed by the fear of them, you are able to perform actions out of your own free will, as in the first definition (but in this case, we’ve made it absolute), and you’ve attained freedom. And then comes a crucial question-“Why do you require such freedom?” At first look, this question seems innocent enough. But every single attempt to answer it seemed to be futile. One doesn’t require freedom for survival; in fact, one has a better chance of survival without freedom, as there is fear preventing one from doing erratic actions. Similarly, freedom isn’t required for comfort. One is much more comfortable without freedom, or to be more accurate, with pseudo-freedom, since one knows the rules of the society, thereby knowing how to be on good terms with it. None of us could actually come up with a reason for freedom. We reached an impasse, and had to admit that none of us knew what absolute freedom is for. And that’s the conclusion we came to. Well, we also discussed minor topics that came in the way, like independence. On discussion, we realized that independence is an even superior concept to freedom, being not dependent on anyone at all. Ironically, we celebrate Independence Day annually, though we haven’t attained it in the literal sense. Sure, we are “independent” of the British. But we have rocking awesome replacements who are even better than the British at their own game. And we are dependent on other countries for innumerable stuff, just as many countries are dependent on us for other stuff. So, no country, or any person for that matter can ever be independent. At least, not in the current timeline that we live in.
Our initial attempts to define this seemingly innocent word, turned out to be surprisingly imprecise. The first definition of freedom that came into scrutiny was – “The ability of being able to do anything out of free will.” Well, at first look, this definition looks innocuous enough, and it goes well with the conventional view of freedom as well. But now, the question arises – “So you do something out of free will. Cool. But every action you do arises out of some desire, and your desires come from external stimuli. So doesn't that mean you’re freedom is dependent on external stimuli?”.
There’s no logical loophole here; this definition can lead to no other conclusion. One might ask, “Yeah, my freedom is dependent on external stimuli. So what’s the big deal?” Well, since we’re all trying to have a logical discussion here, devoid of personal opinions and prejudices, congrats, you've just sabotaged the whole point of it, by trying to define Freedom in a relative manner, which may be differently perceived based on different external stimuli!
From that point onward, it was a roller-coaster ride, each of us trying to define Freedom in an absolute manner. It didn't go as well we had expected it to; the seemingly different definitions that we all came up with were all space-dependent, time-dependent, or person-dependent. In short, they were all variants of the very same definition that we had come up with earlier. They were all relative, and nope, none of us could live with that. So we tried to go about it in the opposite manner. We tried to develop a definition from the very characteristics of freedom that we expect in a society. Since all humans are encompassed by the society, any definition that we come up with in this manner would have to be absolute. Well, there is a serious caveat here of course; the way in which one interprets the society is subject to change from person to person, and in addition to that, we do not know of any other model of society apart from the current one, so in a way, this definition would also have to be relative; society-dependent.
But this didn't bother us much, since the society we know is not going to change anytime in the near future. So we decided to go ahead anyway, keeping this in mind. In a society, you have rules, and being part of the society, you are expected to follow them. So normally, one doesn't go against the society for fear of the rules, and the consequences that follow. So here comes a very interesting, though subtle point; it is fear that actually restricts you from doing actions. Once you think in that direction, things become clear with amazing clarity. The reason why a child dares to do just about anything, and why you are scared of sleeping in classes; fear. And where does this fear come from? Rules. Punishment. In short, information. And the ones who are in direct control of such information are the ones in power, the ones who are truly fearless. And now, we have a clear picture of what’s actually going on (in the current society at least!); the society controls the flow of information (rules), and in fear of that (or opposed to such fear), we perform actions. So where does freedom come in all of this? Well, think of this way: you've been long told that you have various “freedoms” in society. When you actually think about it, every such freedom comes with a set of rules which you are expected to follow, failure of which results in punishment. So, the “freedom” which you experience is a residue of fear, a pseudo-freedom. It’s an illusion making it seem as if you’re in control of your actions, whereas in reality, someone else is pulling the threads.
So what exactly is absolute freedom? We came up with an interesting way of defining it-“It is the acceptance of the working of the society, and still perform actions without fear.” When you’re aware of the rules in the society, and still are not perturbed by the fear of them, you are able to perform actions out of your own free will, as in the first definition (but in this case, we’ve made it absolute), and you’ve attained freedom. And then comes a crucial question-“Why do you require such freedom?” At first look, this question seems innocent enough. But every single attempt to answer it seemed to be futile. One doesn’t require freedom for survival; in fact, one has a better chance of survival without freedom, as there is fear preventing one from doing erratic actions. Similarly, freedom isn’t required for comfort. One is much more comfortable without freedom, or to be more accurate, with pseudo-freedom, since one knows the rules of the society, thereby knowing how to be on good terms with it. None of us could actually come up with a reason for freedom. We reached an impasse, and had to admit that none of us knew what absolute freedom is for. And that’s the conclusion we came to. Well, we also discussed minor topics that came in the way, like independence. On discussion, we realized that independence is an even superior concept to freedom, being not dependent on anyone at all. Ironically, we celebrate Independence Day annually, though we haven’t attained it in the literal sense. Sure, we are “independent” of the British. But we have rocking awesome replacements who are even better than the British at their own game. And we are dependent on other countries for innumerable stuff, just as many countries are dependent on us for other stuff. So, no country, or any person for that matter can ever be independent. At least, not in the current timeline that we live in.
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