Absolute Freedom. Does It Exist?

There’s something about being young that makes everything you experience so fantastical. Considering most of those experiences are first in a lifetime.

I think many, if not all, are perfectly fine with being adults. You’re more keen, aware and more experienced than when you were an adolescent. You’re free to make your own choices as you please based on your passions.

Maybe we just wish the choices we made weren’t always governed by Newton’s Third Law. You know… like, when we were adolescents and we didn’t care about the consequences. But this makes us wiser and less prone to pain.

When we lived in a world where we were practically untouchable. A world without gravity. Where we felt we could defy the law’s that governed the natural world.

When we were young, we lived breaking all the rules and we seemed happy… for the most part. This is how one could define absolute freedom.

So, what is absolute freedom? It’s living a life not bound by laws and strict moral codes or rules; to make life as we please based on what pleases us.

Today, we live in the ‘us first’ generation, putting our happiness before others or else we won’t be… truly free or happy. Because, let’s face it, in the end, that’s all it comes down to, being happy. Which is why we look back to those years of wonder and discovery. Where the stars were what we aimed for.

When, in reality… maybe it was just ignorance all along. Ignorance of the consequences of choice. And that’s my point, at least one of them, that…

• Ignorance… is bliss

It’s not under appreciative living. Call me naive but… There are perfectly memorable moments we’ve experienced without breaking any rules that made us happy. Moments with your parents, siblings and friends that are unforgettably happy moments.

I’m only saying that when the bad things happen, they force us to adjust our lives around them; stripping us from our plans and forcing us to make choices we wish we didn’t have to and that’s part of being a grown up… yeah... you know, the place where gravity does exist and we are bound by the laws of the natural world.

Which is, perhaps, why you find that certain artists speak of the “Good ol’days.” Take Bob Seger’s Against the Wind. A song in which the artist yearns for a feeling of freedom without feeling the consequences of living a reckless life. To which he ends up doing, anyway.

But, I don’t believe he’s asking to go back. I believe he’s only asking to detach himself from the knowledge that, choices in life are many times burdened by consequences. These, in turn, find us chasing against the wind, and ultimately, steal our happiness; our freedom.

Interestingly enough, Bob Seger wasn’t the first to quote this. A wise king who, only second to the wisest man, Jesus, said, that at the end of all his hard work he was chasing after the wind.

Both these men faced consequences for their reckless lives. One, a life of regrets, and the other, God’s disapproval (you don’t believe me? Open a Bible to 1 Kings 11), whom had been the source of this wise king’s wisdom.

None were, after breaking laws and principles, able to find internal happiness. So…. Maybe absolute freedom doesn’t exist.

But… maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Rules and laws… and I tread lately, here… allow us to be free. Now, before you let your blood boil, and it being completely understandable - for many have suffered at the hands of those that “abided” by laws including the justice system. But those individuals abused their authority, breaking the law and therefore hurt many people, ruining those lives, beyond repair.- Thus, here’s my second point…

• Don’t we need rules and laws to be happy?

Everything after my twenties has been tumultuous, to say the least. Most of it was a direct consequence of me breaking the very laws that protected me from a restless conscience. But, when I bound myself to those laws and principles, I, in turn, became happy.

Hard work as it was; in the end I was internally happy. I mean, considering I have the full love and support of both my biological parents.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m throwing it in peoples faces. But, I discovered more and more that many men and women grew up with half the nurtures they deserved. Many of my friends do. Here, the subject of neglect. A word that only touches the surface of the ramifications of that very sad life experience.

I thank my parents for the life I have now. God, they’ve done such a great job at making us happy. All they’ve lived for is for their five kids.

But I’ll be darned if I said that my happiness is solely based on their work. I’m not being ungrateful. It’s because of the laws and rules I’ve chose to follow. From the laws of conducting a vehicle, up to the laws of God. This, I do owe to their inculcating in us. I’ll get to that later.

My parents are both immigrants and both mi padre y madre came from a country that is the quintessential of neglect.

You see, my parents, like many at that time and in Mexico, were married very young; eighteen. Something we rarely see today because modern culture has broken that norm. Most now see that they don’t have to be married to live a fulfilling life… but somehow they still aren’t reaching that fulfillment.

My parents poverty-stricken-lives forced them to migrate to the states, to which, thanks to apá, I am now a citizen of the United States.

But now they yearn for a life that could never be. For a reform that I can guarantee you, will never come. I don’t need to tell you why I know that. Heck, they know that themselves. Just switch your app to Instagram and the internet and you’ll see.

But before you do… like many who’ve left family behind in their countries of origin, they wish for a justice system that will give those loved ones a degree of relative freedom and protection. The kind we enjoy here.

They lived in a country without rules and laws. Policemen could be bribed and still can for just a few pesos. There’s been so much corruption it’s no surprise drug traffickers and kidnappers find it so easy to intimidate the law (as in the Mexican police), and of course the people.

This converted these type of people, the traffickers and kidnappers, into a type of lethal police force organization in Mexico; there, and in many countries alike. Because, let’s be honest, they hold the stakes, though that’s slowly changing.

Not because they’re more powerful, but because a lawless country raised the green flag permitting them to use violence and bribe as both forms of intimidation and control, by neglecting law, rules, and statutes; things that should’ve kept the country in a relative state of order, but, failed to.

You see, people there are so neglected, so repressed, many can’t afford to dream to live in a world with absolute freedom; and honestly speaking… I’m not so sure they’d want to. They’ve seen what a world without rules can be like.

You can say they’ve got a taste of it through their oppressors, which do as they please to please themselves.

But isn’t that absolute freedom? To live without rules and laws, where you decide what’s best for you and no one else decides it for you; heck, not even God or any type of superior being, let alone men.

But… isn’t this the very thing the biblical Eve wanted? Or at least that’s what the Devil made her believe? So, in drawing close to my conclusion, I ask:

Has anyone ever found absolute freedom?

Absolutely not. (Sorry I had to. And don’t tell me you didn’t see that coming).

But, just like we need traffic laws to avoid accidents, we need laws to be happy. If everyone drove how they wanted then we’d all be in the hospital or in a coffin, and the ones we love would be suffering. Then, so would we. Where’s the happiness in that?

In retrospect, we need laws, principles and rules to guide us in helping us avoid pain, sorrow and regret. They bring us true freedom, relative freedom that is, which in turn can bring us lasting happiness.

Yes, laws tend to make us feel repressed. Like, the wearing of face masks, social distancing and staying at home in this pandemic. But these rules, these principles, protect us and the one’s we love dearly from consequences. Because a world without rules, without laws, as you’ve seen, is not freedom… It’s Chaos.