Weekend Engagement - Freedom

Based on the prompts shared, I have decided to write on what freedom means to me.

Before I dive deeper into the topic, I would like to examine what the Oxford dictionary on the meaning of the word Freedom:

There are 6 meaning of the word freedom
1. Freedom is the power or right to do or say what you want without anyone stopping you.
2. Freedom is the state of not being a prisoner or slave.
3. Freedom the state of not being ruled by a foreign or cruel government.
4. Freedom is the state of being able to move easily.
5. Freedom from something is the state of not being affected by the thing mentioned
6. Freedom of something permission to use something without limits

And from the various definition/meaning of the word, discussion will need to addressed based on context.

Freedom to me, is very much aligned to the definitions given in the dictionary. Freedom allows individuals to make choices, express themselves, and pursue their goals according to their own values and beliefs. This can lead to personal growth, fulfilment, and a sense of empowerment. Freedom breaks boundaries for people to let their imaginations fly, new ideas can flourish, leading to innovation, technological advancements, and cultural diversity.

However, it is just a thin line between freedom and lost control. We celebrate the good that freedom brings and need to be aware of the dangers of a wayward freedom. In the further sections, I will share on some freedom components that needs to be guarded because those are building blocks to life and bring good. After which, I will discuss about the dangers and possible safeguards needed against freedom that go out of control.

Freedom Components To Be Guarded From Restriction
To me, there are some things that needs to be given freedom. Due to extensiveness of freedom, I will only be touching on 3 key ones that I strongly feel needs to be guarded.

Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression and the right to work and education to name a few. These are things that should be fought for and ensured to be kept in place. Thank you for Human Rights fighters such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, César Chávez and Nelson Mandela. These are people whom have fought hard for us on Human Rights. The components of Human Rights speaks right into me because these are really important because it gives us protection, especially those who may face abuse, neglect and isolation. These rights enable us to speak up and to challenge poor treatment from a public authority. So freedom given through Human Rights needs to be guarded.

Next to be discussed will be Religion Freedom. This is another freedom that I personally feel is important to be guarded. While I am enjoying this in my country, it is not the same for other countries where government/authorities actually restrict people from Religion Freedom. People living in those countries worship in secrecy, live in constant fear of authorities coming to raid their premise or even through people to prison. In a mission that I took part 5 years ago to a particular country (kept confidential to protect the nation/organization), while at revival service, I personally witnessed police coming in to disrupt the service and forced disperse the service, threatening if we continued, they will arrest us. Hence to me, this encounter shared the importance of Religion Freedom.

Lastly, it will be Political Freedom. This is another freedom that I enjoy in my nation. One might see that having Political Freedom causing potential causes where too many cooks coming in to spoil the broth. But my view is that we are able to participate in the political process, express one's opinions, and choose leaders through fair and transparent elections. This also help us to be the balance checker to those whom have been elected in, instead of political leader being put into power without public participation and accountability. The ability to be accountable in the people we chose based on their merits and capabilities and elect more capable people if the current is unable to perform to the interest of the people is very important to the growth of the nation.

Pitfalls to Extensive Freedom
When freedom is not being properly used can lead to harmful consequences, such as hate speech, discrimination, and exploitation. Without constraints, social disorder sets in, e.g freedom to kill, security is threatened and inequality slowly creeps in, marginalising some minority groups. Freedom can also lead to unsustainable practices being administered where anyone can do anything they want causing harm to people around or even the environment.

Closing
My conclusion on freedom will be that there are some Freedoms needs to remain free from restrictions such as human rights, religion freedom and political freedom which I discussed in the middle section. But sufficient regulation needs to be administered to other areas so that we have the ability to maintain social order and not cause harm to other, create inequality, bring threat to security or even harm the environment.

Defend the basic freedom to ensure they stay intact, know the threats of uncontrolled freedom and guard against any form of exploited freedom!

Thank you for reading my sharing. Here's wishing you an amazing weekend.