Freedom
 How much freedom have we got to make our own choices? Which influences are of restraint? The most restricting factor of freedom is your fellow man and your sense of responsibility towards this fellow man. Because possessing of the whole world on your own might be nice (you could live wherever you want, do whatever you want) but that's impossible. All those other people also have a will. They also want the freedom to do what they want. And that's not possible if you already claimed all the freedom in the world. So in claiming all the freedom, you restrict the freedom of other people. Looking at it from a different angle you could say that your fellow man restricts your freedom.
Also in making choices taking other people into consideration will restrict your own freedom. I can make the choice to study law. But if everybody else already chose to do so, the university will tell me to go study something else. People can be restricting factors in a different way too. Especially people that you love. If they reject a certain choice of yours, you will reconsider it and you might even decide to abandon the choice.
To live together in livable environments there are written and unwritten laws. These laws simply forbid you to do certain things and in doing so is a great restriction of your freedom. They confirm the statement that taking our fellow man into account restricts us in our actions. Looking at it from a different point of view though, these laws are the only way to make this world livable. The laws provide a climate in which we can still make our own choices and do what we want, to a certain extent. Without any laws the world would end up in complete chaos, an environment where in theory we would be free to do what we want, but in reality we couldn't achieve anything useful.
Another factor that is a restriction on our freedom in our society, is money. The greater the possibilities, the greater the impossibilities for a lot of people, because they lack the means to make use of them. Sometimes in our society it seems as if this rule were true: "The more money, the more freedom." Speaking physically, this might be true, but freedom on the inside still isn't for sale. This is the freedom to think differently, in your own way. You need the courage to step from the paved road and to go through your own development. This is also a way to freedom. On your way to this one, fear will be your greatest enemy you'll have to conquer to achieve your goal. In general fear is a great restriction to freedom. If you can conquer the fear to the new and unknown a lot of doors will open for you, that would have left locked otherwise. As far as that is concerned, outer freedom starts with inner freedom. |
