Freedom and Slavery

Freedom and Slavery

What is freedom? Like many other concepts floating around us in this strange universe, freedom is relative to the observer. Many of us, not only, take for granted the freedoms which we have, but are also oblivious to those which we do not. To me freedom is simply being able and unrestricted in pursuing personal happiness by any means necessary, provided that the pursuit of personal happiness for any other individual is not prevented, hindered, or put in jeopardy in any way, except if by just cause, such as self defense, self preservation, self sacrifice, or (in some cases) vengeance. Unfortunately, justification of these scenario’s is based strictly on individual perception, (relative to the observer) which varies greatly and can‘t be proven (100%) to anyone other than the perceiver him/her self. The South’s justification of slavery was a good example of these variations in perception, as I’m sure many plantation owners would have argued that owning slaves was necessary to “self preservation” of their way of life. So, until we can be all telepathically linked to one another and have something along the lines of a collective perception of justice in order to properly judge if any case involving some kind of “interference” in ones pursuit of happiness was in fact justified, than no system of laws can effectively be put in place to protect against violations of freedom without restricting freedom as well, and my definition of freedom is just an illusion that can never be achieved but must always be strived for in order to preserve the freedoms we are allotted. Throughout this nations history, its economy, motivation, and way of life have been dependant on this illusion of freedom for all which we call “the American Dream,” but it has consistently and hypocritically limited the attainability of freedom at any level to only a select few.
Because freedom is based on perception, and ones perception is based on their own environment and experiences, it’s...

Similar Essays