The end of freedom I am shackled hand and foot spread eagle on the floor of my cell. I ask my jailer everyday to set me free. Finally he compassionately sets me free. For days I am exhilarated with the ability to freely pace about my cell. After a few weeks I begin to beg my jailer to set me free. After weeks he, being a compassionate man, sets me free from my cell. For days I am exhilarated at the freedom to wonder about and speak with other inmates. After several weeks I begin to beg my jailer to free me and finally he relents and releases me from jail. I am overwhelmed with the sense of freedom until I, overcome with hunger and basic needs, seek some work so as to feed myself. I find a job working on an assembly line and am exhilarated at the new found freedom. After a year I begin to seek other less strenuous and repetitive assembly line work. I wish to free myself from this robotic work I do everyday. What is the ‘telos’ (ultimate end) of this series of ever persistent desire for freedom? Is hunger for freedom similar to hunger for food, never satiated? I don’t think so. I think the search for freedom can culminate in an ultimate and satisfying end. Freedom, I suspect, is a search for self-determination. When we feel that we are master of our domain, when we are free to determine who we are and what we need to be our self we will have reached that ‘telos’ of freedom. I suspect this end is as unique as a finger print, it is an act of creation and can be made conscious to me only by me. I think each of us must learn for our self what we need to secure freedom’s ‘telos’. Probably most of us find only a degree of freedom, but if we never stop looking we may continue finding more of it.
my idea of freedom is pretty much the same as the usa ahmm bills of rights wish we had freedom like that but instead we got australia like a military base not at all what it seems here is very much work or else we take ur kids and we take em any way then you work or we take you bloody money then you work for your money then you's get little cause we do what we want we the govtment so bugger you all and do what your told ...like that but were hoping for Kevin Rudd to get in politics and change things so were more free'er
families will come together and taxes will go down and we will get paid properly with laws with Rudd we can have hope better than having a military base with liars and they win no matter what you do and your faced with having to work to eat and no families to have smiles on your faces we are not what we used to be
Self knowledge is the essence of self-actualization. Freedom and self-actualization feed upon one another. The more freedom we have the more likely we are to self-actualize and as we do we gain more freedom. They share a symbiotic relationship.
Well, it's not just "government", it's people. If one lives with other people, there will be rules/laws ...it's a foregone conclusion. True, full freedom can exist ONLY for the isolated individual ...completely isolated from every other living human. I don't see that ever happening, do you? Robinson Crusoe had total freedom. Well, no, perhaps not. He was not totally free from hunger or a warm, comfortable, secure place to live. Freedom is a figment of human imagination ...it's a fantasy, it can't be real. Baron Max
Yeah, perhaps. But then hunger is a fear of not getting enough to eat, isn't it? Not having a warm, secure place to sleep is fear, isn't it? How does one eliminate fear ...which is an emotional response. Your statement is probably true, but does it have any real meaning? Baron Max
It means that if humans would work together and stop the fear they have with each other many problems could be overcome. But that fear that someone is going to "get them" or "take everything from them" is quite prevelant in todays world wouldn't you think?
"IF" statements are always nice to make, aren't they. Like ....IF everything was perfect, then there'd be no imperfections. But do they ever really mean anything? I think life has to be lived with it's many imperfections ...to disregard those imperfections is just sticking ones head in the sand. Sorta' like a little kid closing his eyes tightly - if he can't see the monster, then the monster can't see him. Wouldn't life be grand if that were true? Baron Max
Freedom as you describe it is simply getting to do what you want without limitations. This sort of freedom will never exist but only in degrees, so you can search for it your entire life and you will never be satisfied.
