Freely Free

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else. ~ Epictetus

Freedom is the ability to do anything, whether right or wrong. You can do whatever you please, build a castle or destroy a castle. Whatever it be, freedom is the ability to do anything, and that, is why freedom is so dangerous.

When you see a terrorist attack on the news, there usually is some world leader saying that an attack on freedom was dealt today by extremist, or something similar. Nevertheless, that is not actually true. Freedom, in all essence is the freedom to do anything, which is basically anarchy. Freedom with boundaries is what most people think freedom is. Freedom, in reality, is the ability and right to walk off a cliff. Freedom with boundaries, on the other hand, is the barrier at the cliff that stops you from falling off.

So when terrorist attack, they did it on their own free will, they were free to do it. However, boundaries and laws were broken. Not freedom, because freedom dictates that we are allowed to do anything. Boundaries on the other hand say that we are not to go pass this certain line, or consequences will happen or others will be hurt. Mind you though, boundaries is not a cage, it may look like it, but rather a fence to protect you from the raging mad beast of anarchy.

Freedom will take you many places, but at the end of the day there are consequences and boundaries. People think that freedom is wonderful. It is, but too much of a good thing can be bad. That is why having limits and securities in place make them good.

We all love freedom, but as we do like sugar in our sweet cakes; Too much ruins the teeth. However, tempered by restraint makes good things safe and pleasant for people to enjoy. If people believe that freedom is the most important thing, they will be sorely disappointed.The thing is, we can do anything we like, but we shouldn't want to be that free. People might scream give me freedom or death, but death is final, a short loss in freedom is not. And just to be annoying, freedom is an illusion, because we have boundaries and laws that bind us. However, as sailors are bound, or trapped so to speak on a boat, they still have a choice: Stay trapped, but safe on the boat, or, free and drowning in sea of no end.