Quote:

Freedom

Freedom to me is not just a choice of where I choose to go or with whom.

Freedom can mean so many things to many people.

A poor person living in a deprived environment, barely surviving nutritionally and lacking basic sanitation or safe water may consider themselves free if they have a choice to follow their religious beliefs without persecution or fear. They may consider their present situation to be temporary and a mere stepping stone to another level of existance.

To me, being privileged in that I was born in a country where democracy is the basis of the political system, freedom is a huge part of my life. I have a chance to influence political decisions through my vote, and, although my vote alone might not change a political direction, I have the right to stand as a candidate for whatever I want within the reasonable restraints of the law.

I am free to follow my religious pursuation and to bring my children up with the values that my religion encourages. I can talk freely to others about my religion or politics without repercussions as long as I don’t go beyond accepted racial or moral boundaries.

All societies must have rules and standards and these can sometimes feel like restraints on our freedom so it is impossible to have unlimited freedom.

For me, if I want to pray, write and expound my faith or ideas or travel freely within my own society without unreasonable restraint, I AM HAPPY TO FEEL FREE.

If I wish to travel abroad, on average, I am free to do so.

As a UK citizen, I get more and more concerned about survielance by electronic means but I have to accept that some of this is nescessary to protect the majority.

Freedom has to have boundaries within a society but if those boundaries can be changed or influenced by me in some way then I consider myself to be free.

I daily pray that others can share my level of freedom, after all, freedom is about having a chance to make choices.

Roger

'freedom is about having a chance to make choices.' This Dear Roger is the very essence of my 'write' its about making choices !!

The other question is ......'what is food for one is poison for the other' ...so what I consider freedom could well be a bondage to rules of sorts to others!!!

hmmmmmm.....something to think about....would luv to hear more thoughts on this :)

hugz

Pauline

When I used to live in communist Poland freedom for me meant being able to travel abroad, being able to voice my own opinions without fear of being persecuted. Probably there were other things, but these ones were most important one.

Roger said that freedom is to have chance to make the choices. I believe I know what he meant by this, but we always have the chance to make choices no matter where we are.
We always have the choice to make freedom in our hearts like Pauline showed.

This is what I know now living in so called democracy, which is Canada.

Now I'm finding that chance to make choices within our society is an illusion. We make our choices based on information provided to us, meaning that there is always someone who wants to manipulate our perception and today's media is the master of it. Living in communist Poland we were manipulated by media, but this manipulation was less effective as we had access to other media which was saying total the opposite. In today's world media is owned by corporations whose goal is to control large groups of population and lead them in directions they believe are adventurous to them. Politicians are corrupt and work for those corporations, thus making very difficult for average honest citizen to distinguish between facts and the fiction created by the elite. They rsources which tell the facts without manipulation, are beyond reach of average citizen today as the main stream media manipulation is so subtle and sophisticated that average person can't tel the difference.

For me freedom is world without borders, where all their inhabitants have equal rights to use of earth resources without money and all people collaborate with each other to create win-win scenario. For me a freedom is also responsibility such where interests of one individual of society are interests of everybody. The best example for such freedom organism is our body. In our body any of its components has equal access to any of bodies resources according to its abilities and needs and each component of body takes responsibility of other components of the body according to its functions and works to sustain them equally as to sustain itself.

Bogdan Fiedur

Quote:
When I used to live in communist Poland freedom for me meant being able to travel abroad, being able to voice my own opinions without fear of being persecuted. Probably there were other things, but these ones were most important one.

Roger said that freedom is to have chance to make the choices. I believe I know what he meant by this, but we always have the chance to make choices no matter where we are.
We always have the choice to make freedom in our hearts like Pauline showed.

This is what I know now living in so called democracy, which is Canada.

Now I'm finding that chance to make choices within our society is an illusion. We make our choices based on information provided to us, meaning that there is always someone who wants to manipulate our perception and today's media is the master of it. Living in communist Poland we were manipulated by media, but this manipulation was less effective as we had access to other media which was saying total the opposite. In today's world media is owned by corporations whose goal is to control large groups of population and lead them in directions they believe are adventurous to them. Politicians are corrupt and work for those corporations, thus making very difficult for average honest citizen to distinguish between facts and the fiction created by the elite. They rsources which tell the facts without manipulation, are beyond reach of average citizen today as the main stream media manipulation is so subtle and sophisticated that average person can't tel the difference.

For me freedom is world without borders, where all their inhabitants have equal rights to use of earth resources without money and all people collaborate with each other to create win-win scenario. For me a freedom is also responsibility such where interests of one individual of society are interests of everybody. The best example for such freedom organism is our body. In our body any of its components has equal access to any of bodies resources according to its abilities and needs and each component of body takes responsibility of other components of the body according to its functions and works to sustain them equally as to sustain itself.

Bogdan Fiedur

Thank you Bogdan,

Your thoughts greatly appreciated. Coming from where you did I can imagine you really know the meaning of 'Freedom' .

I believe God created man to be so absolutely free....but we somehow lost that along the way. Now what the world calls 'Freedom' is in reality NO freedom indeed.

To me being free is really not letting anyone, any circumstance, or anything control your heart mind and emotions......ofcourse there are the natural reactions instantly to circumstances and situations, but having the control of not letting it enslave you is key...thats where we make an intentional effort to choose rightly.

Nuff said for now...will be back..... :)

Pauline

Hi Pauline,

when I read your thread the words of a german philosoph (when I remember well Immanuel Kant) came into my mind:

Freedom ends where it collide with the boundaries of the next.

What does this mean? My behaviour has always to be in a way that it doesn't hurt, limit with my actions the person next to me. This implies no murder, steal, a.s.o.

First of all it's s.th. which comes out of myself: I'm able to decide, act independent of other influences like media, parents, friends etc. Freedom is the capability to make own decisions based on knowledge and experience, listening to others free of prejudice. Freedom means living and concede the same to everybody else.

On the other hand we are living in a comunity where are different understandings, behaviours which make it sometimes difficult to persue freedom. Therefore it's difficult to see freedom as a global value. It is very individual.

When Bogdan says, that all inhabitants of the world should have equal rights I answer: basicly should it be like this. But seeing all the different mentalities, religions, races it's impossible to realize this. Although - speaking about religion - to my opinion every religion and because of this every social community bases more or less on the 10 commandments (as I'm catholic) the interpretation over the milleniums has changed remarkable.
Reflecting about this I would say that freedom under this aspect means: maintain the different populations as they are and not try to convince them in a manner that they have to be in a way or another like me or you. Freedom means to show them to develop there capacities, to use their treasures but never ever force them to be equal to someone else!

Pauline you're really inspirational. These are my words for today. I'm going to bed now but before

hugs and sunshine and embracement

Rieke


P.S. Pauline I got the enlightenment HUGS!!!!!! Nothing slang, nothing abbreviation - you are phantastic.

Rieke,

So much of what you say I agree with.

It would be wonderful if people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds sought to fulfill their dreams within that culture, taking it to new levels of excellence. There will always be individuals who seek to identify themselves elsewhere but i pray that people see their own potential and develop that.

Yes, to impose things on others is unfair and unpricipled, however, many of the world's most free civilizations developed through imposed rule.

It seems that all nations have to go through a hard time to reach freedom, some through civil war and others by imposed rule.

As human beings we have so much potential for good but allow the minority to dictate.

If freedom is love then that is the way to go.

Love,

Roger