Let's reflect: Freedom

I was tagged by @Bloghound to participate in @JonicaBradley 's "#Freedom" challenge. The rules are simple:

1. Write about Freedom

2. Write 100% original content

3. Write at least 600 words

4. Tag me @JonicaBradley

5. Have fun

I've been trying to think about what freedom means to me, but I realized that it's really a hard topic to concentrate on. Freedom comes in many forms - personal freedom, freedom of speech, financial freedom, etc. It's never really been a subject that I've thought about in great detail, but rather something I've kinda just taken for granted. While thinking about this more, I began to realize how much of a mess I would be if I had absolute freedom - in having all the time in the world to do anything I want whenever I want, I wonder if I'd really end up doing anything at all.

Part of the appreciation we (or at least I) have for things comes from the fact that our time and resources are limited so we need to make the most of what we do. I appreciate weekends because of the amount of time I spend working through the week. I appreciate idle time because of the amount of housework and errands I have to run on a daily/weekly basis.

I appreciate the things I buy because my money is limited. I also try to be at least somewhat mindful of the fact that the products that I consume and purchase are created with limited resources, and often times create an excess of waste.

I appreciate the times I get to travel, because it's not something I get to do every day. Taking in new scenes and smells is one of my favourite things to do!

Part of the appreciation we (or at least I) have for things comes from the fact that our time and resources are limited so we need to make the most of what we do. I appreciate weekends because of the amount of time I spend working through the week. I appreciate idle time because of the amount of housework and errands I have to run on a daily/weekly basis.

I appreciate the things I buy because my money is limited. I also try to be at least somewhat mindful of the fact that the products that I consume and purchase are created with limited resources, and often times create an excess of waste.

I appreciate the times I get to travel, because it's not something I get to do every day. Taking in new scenes and smells is one of my favourite things to do!

While I realize that I am very privileged in comparison to other places in the world, this exercise has really made me reconsider how bad total freedom can be, and that maybe the best place to be is somewhere more like 75% free - a place where you can live comfortably within your means, and go about your day. A place where you can (mostly) speak your mind without fear of punishment for saying something relatively harmless.

A world of absolute freedom would be a world of anarchy. A world where social supports don't exist. A world where there are no taxes to help pay for things like roads and forests. On the other hand, a world without any freedom would be about the same. There would be no social supports. Public services would be nearly non-existent and infrastructure would be a mess. Taxes would mainly fund the leaders and a military to help them keep you in your place. Neither of these choices seem like good choices to me.

Considering things further, many of the things we enjoy are only available to us because of other people who also lack absolute freedom. If nobody needed to work anymore, we'd all be left to our own devices and knowledge to get things done - construction, entertainment, medical/health, etc. Paradoxically, the allowance of ultimate convenience means that there would be no convenience at all. The things we use for convenient only exist because other people were conveniently inconvenienced to make them.

I'm not too sure how to end this - the whole thing is a bit of a mess, as I ended up kinda writing down my stream of thought as it came, but hopefully you found it a good (albeit maybe all over the place) read!