The Illusion of Freedom
Growing up like so many in the United States, I was taken in with the awe of such a country where people were free to practice their own religion or believe generally whatever they wanted. This idealistic situation would have not even three hundred years ago have been seen as possible. Such a utopia we were living in!
But like any utopia, the reality is that there is no such thing. The sweeter the illusion, the nastier the fall to realism. My childhood exploded with the destruction of the twin towers, and my idealism melted alongside the jet fuel induced steel beams. September 11th allowed me to begin coming to grips with reality. As I was continually blamed at my middle school for the deaths of those involved. I remember specific remarks such as me pleading that I was a Jew not a Muslim. The responses were always the same: “You don’t believe in Christ just like the Muslims. You are going to hell. You are evil.” Words that a young teen boy should never have to deal with.
But rather than dwell in the fact that I was being targeted despite having nothing to do with 9/11, I decided to learn about Islam. In doing so, I decided that perhaps it would be easier to understand why the comparisons exist. I quickly found similarities, but those similarities stem into far more than just religious texts. Indeed, humanity seems to have similar rules wherever you go on how to behave.
Rules such as murdering is wrong, alongside stealing being immoral make sense to me. They make sense to the world at large, hence why those laws appear just about everywhere. But that got me thinking. If such rules are universal, and freedom is about the ability to choose what rules to follow, are we truly free?
It seems to me, that freedom only extends so long as one keeps their head down and follows the rules. Upstarts and rebels are punished not just by the law, but by their peers. Seeing the world as an outsider courtesy of my Jewish Heritage has shown me that for all our advancements, tribalism still guides humanity.
To that end, the lovely ideas we subscribe to in America: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, seem to have fine print attached to them. This superscript adds that “these rights shall vanish into the night the moment you stop following the complex laws put in place by those in power”
Many people constantly talk about the cost of freedom. They will give you differing definitions about what that cost is. My answer to this cost is simple. There is no cost. Freedom is an illusion. The cost for something that is fake is in fake currency. Freedom is the ability to live lie according to standards chosen. I do not think humanity favors freedom. Instead we favor stability and control in our lives. Freedom is the opposite of such ideals: Instability, chaos, and uncertainty.
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