Sweet Freedom

Ahh, freedom! Sweet, sweet freedom! So beautiful, so elusive and also, the world's biggest oxymoron. Freedom governs our every action, so much so that it becomes the very force that constrains us. We want to be free to say what we want. We want to be free to share our thoughts. And we want to ensure that we are free from the implications of our actions. (Listening to Jeremy Vine this morning in light of the Parisian terrorist attack that happened earlier this week, this sequence of thought freedom seems particularly prevalent.) But our obsession with our freedom is around us in all forms. 

Freedom to love who we want, even if they're of the same sex. Freedom to be who we want and get a job that needs us. Freedom from our families. Freedom from the government. Freedom from technology. Freedom from cancer. 

There are constantly petitions for those of us who are deemed to have freedom of speech to save those who aren't. Us, the 'free people', the people who can say what we want ... only we can't. I agree: no one should be granted to make racist comments, to make rude and damaging remarks about other people's faiths or their sexual orientation. That shouldn't happen. But as a nation and even, as a race, we are absolutely and undeniably obsessed with being free. And herein lies our problem. 

We have a massive issue with the word 'free'. People have differing views of what it means to be free in varying contexts. But if we reduce the word to its bare skeleton it means 'to be unconstrained'. So, apply this in a context of 'dignity' - well, then we should all accept that it is perfectly normal for some of us to choose to strut off to Tesco's naked. If you have a problem with it, then you're not liberal enough. Apply this in the context of 'speech' and anyone can say whatever they want. 

Our problem is not with what we want from society. But what we seek to do is lump all our thoughts into one neat word that rolls of the tongue. 

'Free' is not it. 

Perhaps, instead we should call it 'impartiality' -  a word meaning fairness and equal treatment of people, which still upholds the principle of open-mindedness. Rather than 'freedom of speech', 'impartiality of speech'. It sounds better already. 

I wanted to start this year off with a blog post that meant something. I wanted to start with something along the lines my usual kind of list obsession but I felt this way was better. So, for 2015, I invite you all to give up your supposed freedoms. Not to imprison yourself and give up being free, but to be something different. Strive to be impartial.