I've had people at home and around me telling me that I don't know how the world functions. Maybe that's true. I'm saying "maybe" because from what I know, maybe they're just forcing a lie down my throat. Or what I know is only half of what the world is.
Now my ire over this whole issue was first fuelled when I was 10. I was in catechism. Now we don't expect everyone to be of sound judgement in Sunday school. All of us were ten-year-olds ; some were meek and knew how to behave well, and some just did NOT know how to behave. The average adult would probably blame the upbringing of the child, but I had a feeling that I was about to experience more than just the results of children being brought up in a certain manner.
There was one boy who had the reputation of being the most loud-mouthed person in the class, and he loved throwing insults at people. My group of friends was his main target. Now I knew it wasn't due to his upbringing, because his parents were good people, and they were my catechists at a few points in time. They were among the people I could rely on for questions of faith. One fine day the boy was picking on a very good friend of mine for no apparent reason. I chided him for his behaviour, his father chided him for his behaviour in class, and the answer he kept on uttering was "It's a free world !"
I knew back then that something was seriously wrong with his answer. I knew that freedom did not give us the right to hurt people ; it gave us neither the right to take away what belonged to others nor the right to do as we wished and deprive people of their own personal freedoms. I don't think I told anyone this when I went home, because it was one of the usual instances where my friends and I would get picked on, and I doubted anyone would really pay attention. But in truth, this did give me a sufficiently vivid picture of how the world behaved. And I was never in support of the world's habits from the start.
The notion of freedom gives me the idea that society should be well-loved, cared for and respected., and that their offspring should be free to flourish. Despite all that I see in print media, all the provisions in law that talk about human rights and societal freedoms, in practice, it's almost the opposite.
I came to Freshers' Fair and I got VERY FED UP when the first booth I saw at the ground floor of the Forum was a booth on sexual health. "It's just something you do, but be safe." Those of you who saw the videos would've seen that my camera first flashed to the booth, then I turned away because I really felt sick. This wasn't what I would call a warm welcome. A friend of mine who had recently graduated from Cambridge also told me that in his student welcome pack, there was a condom inside it. It really made him wonder why people were going to such lengths. And I shall not go on to mention details about the other things that have sickened me as I grew up.
To be honest, it's difficult to say who the actual culprit behind the "Do what you want ! Be free !" notion is. Even with the facts, figures and reports, I'm not sure whether to point my finger at the government of the day, the representatives themselves, the media or society as a whole. But there's one thing I do know for sure : this notion is not making anyone free, it's making people go through a sickening chain of supposed euphoria, debauchery and death. It's not giving society a life of principle. A counter-argument to this is that the law exists to put society back on track because of its objectivity, but that alone is JUST NOT ENOUGH. I may adhere to the rules but be a hardline swindler, for one. I may go off stock-free but I'd be abusing the very concept of freedom.
I'd rather be bound by the obligation to love, treat others with kindness and protect human life than demand for absolute freedom and let all hell break loose. This world is never gonna be free if people keep on going with the flow without even being told about the consequences they'd have to suffer in the long run.
Yes, bite me. To think I got quite a bit of this knowledge when I was ten years old. Gimme a break, man.
Whilst we are free to choose our actions,________
we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions
__________________--Stephen R. Covey
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