Monday, June 6, 2016

Confinement and Freedom (A Look on Discord)

Confinement can sometimes be better off than freedom. Wait, before you react to this, let me just say that this piece doesn’t come from a person who is confined to an ideological matter relating to something like… religion or politics, et cetera. Because I will not let myself be bound to those ideas for me to think of matters concerning what life should be, in my point of view. Hey, we’re all beings of thought here, thus, we are entitled to our own opinions of our views in life. So, what then is the reason why I mentioned those words in the first sentence? Perhaps we should look better at confinement as a means for one to be free rather than see confinement as a matter of being chained in a box outside of being liberated.

Ironic as it may seem but the truth of this matter can be seen in our very lives, I’ve seen it in mine, I don’t know about yours. But mostly, as far as my observation to other people’s lives (and mine) is concerned, I have seen this irony and am continually seeing so as long as I’m breathing. So, why is it better for some to be confined rather than be free? Why is it better to be bound to something than to be liberated by someone, or something? I’ve been asking these questions to myself more than a dozen times and have attempted to shed some answers to it more than I ask about it.

Confinement as the Basis for Freedom
            Whether we like it or not, we are not free; we are not in a state we deem to think being free in any way. Being a part of a society that builds itself on politics and laws, we are bounded on a set of codes that makes our society what it is. Under those codes, we have set a standard for freedom and if we deprive ourselves from those, we are considered outlaws of the society we claim to be a part of. Unless, of course, we submit ourselves to those moral codes that we’ve established that should exert punishment for our deflection, we can have a chance yet to be accepted back by the society we ought to live in. By this, I am reminded of what Jean-Jacques Rousseau pointed out that, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” In my understanding of this, we are free yet that freedom is only a matter of what the law says we are. If I’d furthermore explain this, we’ll just go round-and-round the context that I’ve already presented, thus, we proceed to another point by which I shall conclude this “opinionated” blog.

Freedom as a Means of Discord
            I myself am a “professing” anarchist; anarchist by means of subjecting myself with my own understanding of some concepts that others prefer to accept without deeply looking at it. But I am not saying that others just don’t view things deeper. As I’ve said, we have our own opinions and we are subjected to raise those opinions whenever we want to. So, what then is the basis of anarchism without viewing lawlessness and discord? As some view anarchism as a matter of chaos and turbulence. But for me, anarchism is simply viewing things differently from what most people view it to be. Anarchism is therefore, for me, a matter of private opinion than a basis of turmoil.

            Now let us go back to freedom. Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Men are free, but not TOTALLY free.”? Well, for some good reason, this phrase has a significant amount of validity since, as I’ve pointed out, men are bound by the laws their society has built on. Now, being free, and I mean total freedom, can be a basis of discord than a means of positive liberty. This is where confinement then arrives. In order for a society to thrive and survive, the law is created to suppress discord and therefore confine the people to a norm that should make the society it builds be in harmony we can only describe as “peace”. We now arrive to the conclusion that peace is the only way for a society to thrive. However, peace is just another idiosyncratic mode of building a genuine account for true liberty. There is a much greater factor that we should view at freedom rather than discord, and we should confine ourselves to it to be truly liberated from the superficial amounts of freedom that the law provides. Love.


            Love is the profoundest way that we should allow ourselves to be confined with so that we can be entirely free. It is not just a maudlin aspect, but the only true basis that we could conclude so that we can be truly free. It is the object by which peace is contained, it is the prison by which we should lock ourselves into, and it is the very matter at the core of our search for genuine freedom. But it is ironic that we profess to love but still we grip on hate, thus freeing ourselves from it, and in doing so, be confined to the very thing we loathe… discord.

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