Freedom. Liberty. Two words thrown about as a weapon by the right against perceived state intervention and by the left against a corporate takeover of civil society. But who is right? Both? Neither? I can tell you my version of freedom, because I have recently given much thought to it. I am sure some others have already thought up the same, so I apologise for reinventing the wheel, but I wanted to cast an eye on it at this current time when politics in the Western world are in an ultra-rapid state of flux.
I was sitting in various places in my garden and on my terrace one late-spring weekend last year, looking at the newly-planted apple trees and watching a family of blue tits flitting from branch to ground to wall and back to branch. It is one of my greatest pleasures to watch the wildlife enjoying the product of several summers' worth of planting and landscaping, experimenting and seeking advice over attracting all manner of living things with wings, hooves, antlers or tails to grace my garden and the meadow just beyond it.
I rarely play music in the garden; the songbirds make its theme tune. It has been visited by deer, foxes, kites, hawks, song thrush, squirrels, wild boar, even a trio of stray cows that had broken out of their meadow on the hills above our land and fancied a nibble of our grass. Sitting out there is better than anything else. Apart from the exhilarating and highly amusing company of my children, of course.
And that's when it hit me.
This was freedom: the absence of worry. Here I was, sitting in the garden I had conceived, smoking a cheap cigar, listening to the sounds of nature, contemplating life's knottiest questions.
But why?
When I sit outside, the only things that bother me are if I see some weeds have grown back where I or my gardener had recently removed them, or when a neighbour decides to light a fire. Pretty petty stuff, really, in the general scheme of things. Freedom, to me, is the absence of worry, and the cleanness of the conscience. Let me explain.
Absence of worry includes not having to think where your next meal is going to come from. Or not having to decide whether to default on the electric bill to pay school lunches. Or having utility bills low enough to not notice the payments leaving your account. Freedom is being able to walk down any street knowing you're nearly totally safe from accidents, fights, shootings, natural disasters and reckless driving, unless you do something reckless yourself; leaving a hospital after treatment without a huge life-changing bill hanging over you; the ability to jump in the car and drive across three international borders on a short road trip; not needing to worry about your children's safety in school as the only drills they practise are fire drills; and being able to sit in my garden typing my own opinions on anything I feel like.
What about the cleanliness of the conscience? I don't mean piety or sinless behaviour, as I get the feeling most religious types are never free of their torment. I mean feeling not guilty for the actions and decisions you take. No regrets, in other words. I am a firm believer that not every crime is immoral and neither is every lawful action moral. I give you the example of activists, whether protesting the climate emergency, LGBTQ rights, the destruction of public land, or just supporting the opposition. In other words, those who believe in their causes to the extent that they get put into prison, not just in countries like Russia, China or Equatorial Guinea, but in Poland, Hungary, the UK and the US too.
I also mean the compromising of morality for the sake of profit, for example Western countries that turn a blind eye to the horrors of Chinese brutality against Uighurs, Tibetans or Hongkongers to keep trade going, or the selling of weapons to inhumane regimes such as Saudi Arabia. Where does one sit with Israel? I deplore antisemitism, or indeed any -ism against fellow sentient beings, but I am very comfortable in saying that I am passionately, even fervently, anti-Netanyahu and everything he stands for. Peace must come, but it cannot come while anyone who believes in the right to statehood and self-determination for Palestinians is accused of being anti-Jewish. This is an overreaction designed to silence anyone who questions them and their unlawful behaviour.
As I sit here typing this out on a Chinese laptop, with a Logitech keyboard made in China, I realise I am also contributing to the suffering of others, but consumption guilt at this level is only avoidable with extreme pickiness and a lot of hours spent questioning sales staff in computer shops as to the provenance of their wares. Instead, we need to make it clear to suppliers that their pursuit of profit is what is driving this enriching and rewarding of nasty regimes, and that we are willing to pay more for these products if their production is moved to a place in an enlightened and democratic nation where jobs are needed. We need to pay more for our products; bring them in-house, so to say, and create more jobs in our backyards. This means we need to communicate this loud and clear to companies who switch production to places with cheap workers to save more money.
Also, cleanliness of the conscience goes for how we treat others on a personal basis. I have done things to others that I look back on with regret. I am not alone here at all. I cannot change the past and go back to rectify it, but I can show sincere remorse and make up for it by never doing it again. There are other things I have done which others would find immoral but which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I did not harm others or even come into contact with others while doing them, or even make anyone feel uncomfortable or embarrassed. There are people who would consider them immoral, nonetheless. I really don't care what they think, as the only thing that was harmed was their squeaky-clean and vacuous imagination.
I used to be very conservative in my views on life. I used to be quite sanctimonious and I took life very, very seriously, to the point where I had no fun at all, which was mainly due to nurture, not nature, sadly. I also expected those around me to do the same, believe the same, and act the same, so as you can imagine, I had very few friends. But slowly, as I met people who loved life, tried everything out that does not kill or harm, accepted failure and celebrated success, I realised my view of the world was silly, fuddy-duddy, old-fashioned, and was not a way to keep friends. I rejected the moralistic, moralising, morale-reducing harbinger of self-righteousness that I had become, and opted for the flexibility and open-mindedness that I had learned from various people I met on the way to being me. It was a long and tortuous journey, but it led me to finding contentment and spiritual peace.
Why am I saying this? Because in the manifestation of my former self, I was not free. Freedom is in the head more than anywhere else. And it starts with how you act towards yourself, then other individuals, then society in general, in that order. Acting honestly towards yourself is where freedom begins. It means thinking those thoughts that you used to suppress, it means switching off your own internal censor and investing in your own happiness, not brushing it to the fringes of your mind.
Freedom is a concept, not only a legal item, and we need to exercise it without encroaching on others' sensitivities or causing fear, misery, discomfort or anger in them. This is why, when I read stories about Americans and their attachment to guns, I cringe. If Second Amendment zealots really want to have their weapons, they should also balance that up with the sensitivities of other individuals and general society, especially around those who have victims of gun violence in their circle, of which there are many. So compromise needs to be found. Think of it like this: I like to play golf, but I don't play it in the town centre park; I go to a golf course, a place specifically dedicated to this activity. Likewise, people with guns should balance their wishes with those who prefer to have the freedom to walk the streets or send their children to schools without worrying if they'll come back.
Likewise, religious people can have whatever views they like, but they have no right to impose them on other individuals, or society in general. If they don't agree with women's rights over their bodies, equality of the sexes, alcohol consumption, polyamory, soft drugs, euthanasia for the terminally ill, or anything else for that matter, they can believe and practise that amongst themselves, but they should leave the rest of us well alone and not impose their narrow views on the rest. This is why, in true democracies, religion and the state are kept far, far apart. Let's face it, the teachings of most religions evoke the same basic rules: look after your fellow human being, do nobody harm, live to the full, don't judge. But it is precisely that fourth one that has made its way from religion into politics. And we should slam it straight back into its box.
For this is what true freedom is - practising what you believe is right for you as a conscientious and mature citizen, and keeping your nose out of others' business, unless you can see clearly that it is having a detrimental effect on them or those around them. This is by no means an issue of keeping the state out of our affairs; this is in fact a personal and societal one, and the sooner these matters become mainstream, like public smoking did, the more effectively we can deal with those who still seek to impose their views on us all.
I find it horrific that the very same people who complain about the encroachment of the state on their daily lives also want to use the state and the law to limit people's rights in areas they have problems with. For them, it's okay to let the state take a back seat over healthcare, guns, education, corporate responsibility, youth issues and social security, but they clamour vigorously for state "intervention" in matters as diverse as abortion, bailing out failed banks and even freedom of expression when it questions their own beliefs.
To recap: freedom is not about the ability to carry weapons in public or impose your views, religious or not, on the rest of society: it is the absence of these things, and most importantly, the absence of worry. Now before you think, "well yes, but that requires earning money to a certain level". No, it doesn't. It means that, whatever your salary (or not), you should not need to worry where your next meal is coming from. Let us take social democratic countries where it is more difficult to die of hunger than not, what do they do right? They maintain the idea that we're all in it together. Part of your taxes goes directly to providing for the most vulnerable in society, and making sure they can integrate as much as possible into normal life.
In rampant capitalist countries, it is claimed that low taxes and trickle-down economics will sort out the poverty by allowing companies to invest what they would have paid in taxes to hiring more workers. But this is a fallacy, as not only do companies cream off their profits for their shareholders first and foremost, it also encourages individualism and selfishness in the fact that people start to covet their own wealth and treat colleagues, neighbours and even family members as competitors rather than team players. Another side effect is, although you can become fabulously wealthy, you can also die destitute and hungry, or rejected by your health insurance.
We need to balance the right to live in peace with the duty we have to provide for those less fortunate than us. And that means doing what is right by our fellow humans - let us give everyone the right to live without worry: let us use our taxes to support those who need it most, whether it is by providing everyone with proper medical care, adequate and affordable housing, essential supplies, or opportunities to feel useful in society. For freedom is the right to live your life without worry, and that means money needs to be much less important. Societies need to extricate themselves from their reliance on budgets and markets.
I remember in the past when I was working for a pittance and still had to pay the bills, rent and living costs. In the UK, I dared not rock the boat even one little bit for fear of losing everything. I was not permitted to have any self-pride.
In order to deliver a society free from this in the 21st century, we need to move away from our addiction to news outlets and newspapers run by media moguls, our exaggerated commercial activities, and our feelings of inadequacy brought about by comparing our lives to our peers on social media. We need to reconnect with the society we live in, be true to ourselves, and stand by our principles. But most of all, we need to drastically change the way we live: this starts with taking steps to ensure all of us fit into the society where we live and work; be less cynical about helping others; entreat our leaders to enforce the rule of law; pay more for products and commodities to ensure their ethical cleanness, and be prepared to give up outdated privileges that encroach on the well-being of others.
Finally, we need to wean ourselves off those things that destroy or harm our planet, our only home. Cars are a necessary evil, but we can do a lot more to avoid using them too much. It was once said that to gauge the level of advancement and collective wealth of a civilised society, we should not count the number of fast cars on its streets, but the number of rich people who take public transport.
In these testing times, we all need to take mental stock of what we have and what we are going to lose if we continue to let society slide further into the abyss. We should not be reacting glumly whilst watching it happen; we should be proactively stopping the cynical takeover of our cherished freedoms by those who seek to reduce or remove our rights to freedom of conscience and make us worried about everything around us.
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