| Current mood: |  thoughtful |
| Current music: | The child is gone - Fiona Apple |
"Freedom" from Poverty!!
What makes passionate flag-wavers like us take our Freedom for granted? Gaurav talks about it in this extremely well written lucid piece on his blog.
Now, what he says is nothing we don't already know. Whether or not we actively realize the fact, is an entirely different matter. As I went through it, I could very easily see the counter arguments that await it.
One, I'm sure, being the "unfair comparison" being made with a country like America which is not plagued by problems that India grapples with at the moment, one of the most glaring one being poverty. The argument which would say that a country like ours where the majority still lives below the line of poverty, cannot and should not be expected to realize the importance of freedom.
So is poverty a cause that makes the millions of poor Indians not recognize the significance of "freedom"? Or is it an effect of not recognizing the true meaning of "being free"?
I think I'd like to agree with the latter. Why? Well, because of my firm belief in the concept of individualism. The concept that says that every single human being born, to a prince or a pauper, is born an individual first, and is aware of it till the social and political atmosphere around conditions him to think otherwise. Therefore, it is man's basic requirement to be free and this requirement he can realize only if he thinks of himself as an individual.
Individualism believes in every individual's capacity to think and reason, and it is through reason that he gathers the necessary skills and the knowledge required to produce and earn what he needs in order to sustain a decent standard of living, and that satisfies him. Only when we know that we are the owners of our own lives, do we accept the responsibility to improve it for the better.
When we yell "Freedom from Poverty" at the top of our voices, are we looking to really "free" the poor? Or is it just another way to ask for alms, in the form of free houses, free food, job reservations? Are we looking for freedom or handouts?
Just like the control of our own nation was not handed out to us till we made a conscious effort to realize it. Similarly, till we make a conscious effort to realize the control of our own lives, it will not be handed down to us.
Freedom, as we all know through reason, does not come free.
 pleiades
(Read comments)
|
