3/24/2005

what is freedom? is it being free to do whatever we please? is it something more controlled, being limited not by others' rules but by our own ability to choose?

webster's dictionary defines freedom as follows: (1) the quality or state of being free, as (a) the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action (b) liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another (c) the quality or state of being exempt or released from something onerous

the very first subdefinition (a) outlines it: the absence of.. constraint. not being free to do anything, but being free to choose.

so how do you choose? well, according to your morals, of course. how do you get morals? what influences you? do laws give you morals? no. laws do not establish right and wrong, they establish punishment for going against what they say. one's parents should be the first people who give you morals, the ones who set in you the sense of right and wrong.

this post is influenced by a certain 13-year-old in racine. her father, the only disciplinarian in her life, is gone. her mother now lets her do whatever she wants. when asked why this is, her mother said it's because she wanted her daughter to have some freedom. now, completely ignoring the implications of damage to this young girl because of her so-called "freedom," what about her sense of ethics/morality? she has none. because of her mother, she sees the former rules of her father as nothing but limitations. now she is "free" to do what she wants, but her worldview is skewed because she is not free to see what will hurt her. her mother, being her mother, should be teaching her in what will hurt her and what will help her, but is not. she is also not free to choose, because she is weak-willed and prone to peer pressure - and she has very bad friends.

see? i can have a logical discussion without having to bring God into it. ;) there's more i could say on this, but i'll give it a rest for now.

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