Personal Freedom
It’s
my life. Just leave me alone. Let me live my life and you live yours. How many
times have you heard that said? That sounds reasonable doesn’t it? It certainly
does sound that way to me, but it’s not. It is not reasonable for a number of
reasons. Your freedom to be left alone and do as you please ends where
another’s freedom begins.
There
was a day when the issue of personal freedom was less of a problem. In the
beginning, we were primarily an agrarian nation–our population was less dense. We
were born on a farm, raised in the city during the industrial revolution of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and graduated to the current age of
technology in which we now find ourselves. In our highly industrialized and
technically oriented computerized internet society today, most all of us live
in urban areas. Whereas our neighbor now may be next door, upstairs,
downstairs, or just on the other side of the wall, our neighbor then was either over the hill, up
the “holler”, or miles down the trail. Today, we continually bump into one
another. We bump into one another when we breathe the same air, share the same
water, travel the same roads, when our neighbor’s stereo or TV is too loud, and
on and on.
The
fact is our freedom comes face to face with others constantly. That’s why we
can’t do as we please. That’s why our personal freedom must have its limits.
With freedom comes responsibility, the need for self-discipline, and accountability.
If we are to live in peace with others, we must understand and accept this.
Ronald
Miller
mtss86@bellsouth.net
"Your freedom to be left alone and do as you please ends where another’s freedom begins."
ReplyDeleteDo you mean we are--or should be--free to do as we please, so long as, and up to the point that, we infringe on the freedoms of another? If so, I think that is the only right way to live.
If not, then I'm not sure what you mean when you say that our freedom to be left alone ends where another's freedom begins. If we're alone, how could be be impeding another's freedom? Perhaps you mean it in the sense of someone who might say "Leave me alone! I'm beating my wife!" to someone trying to intervene on behalf of the wife.
I'd love to see this idea followed to its logical extreme. For instance, I'm sure many people would agree with a fundamental statement like, "People should be free to act as they please so long as their actions do not infringe the rights of anyone else." But then my guess is that there would be a whole lot of disagreement about what a "right" really is and what actions infringe on those rights.
I look forward to learning more about your thoughts on this topic.
Thank you for your comment, Ryan. I am truly appreciative and encouraged by it.
DeleteIt is difficult to believe, generally speaking, that in current times anyone’s actions fail to affect, directly or indirectly another’s’ freedom in one way or the other; or, at the very least, be arguable–especially in the extreme. It is for this reason that, in making a judgment, I like to retain the flexibility of generality–a mode which allows for a little slack. As I say that, I smile because it makes me appear not a little like a politician which I certainly am not and could never be–another subject for another day. Ha.
In sum total, my attitude toward personal freedom in general comes the closest to your suggestion: “We are free to do as we please, so long as, and up to the point that, we infringe on the freedoms of another”. Beyond that, the issue is subject to review.
Ron