In the new year of 2017, it seems rather impossible to think we could live without so many of the accommodations we have now that it’s easier to let the simpler things slide by without being noticed. Can you imagine going through the day without your credit cards, smartphone, personal and public transportation. All of these things would have not even been imaginable 100 years ago and we tend to forget that we live in one of the most advanced times to be alive. Now all of the aforementioned accommodations truly make life great, and yet what could still be the greatest one has yet to have been mentioned. There is one accommodation that often goes unnoticed. It allows us to decide what we want to do when we wake up, decide how we want to get to work, and it even lets us choose what we go home to. Liberty.
Liberty, on the scale we have today, is something unimaginable on all levels to most other countries in the modern world we know today. What we can control and decide would have been unfathomable 100 years ago. We get to choose whether we eat Wheaties or Fruit Loops in the morning, whether we take our showers before or after work, what new phone to get, what to eat for dinner, all down to whether you want to where pajamas to bed or sleep in the buff. Now imagine you had no influence on any of these things. Would you wake up, ready to tackle the day? Would you strive to exceed the performance goals for that next raise? Would you look at everyday as if it held a new adventure for you waiting to be discovered? Although everyone is different I do believe the vast majority would answer no. I know I wouldn’t be able to find the worth of any action and I don’t know many who could.
Albert Camus, a novelist and existentialist philosopher, once posed a rather odd question. “Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?” This question, although peculiar is something we find ourselves answering every morning, even though we may not address it directly our actions do. When we are given every option available to us and the freedom to choose what we want we are able to accomplish great things. Not only have we walked on the moon, but we now have more advanced technology stuffed in our pockets today then what was involved with getting us to the moon. That is one of the greatest of many examples of what we can do when granted the freedom and liberty to pursue our passions and dreams.
The pursuit of happiness is something most of us are willing to go great lengths to achieve. One particular thing about happiness is that it is different for everyone. Happiness to me may be wealth beyond what I have ever known, yet happiness to you may be a small house with the person you love the most. One is not truly worth any less than the other, it’s simply what each person holds more worth to. Everyone has different desires, and being able to achieve those desires helps everyone. It has been shown in numerous studies that our emotions are influenced by those around us. When more people were able to achieve what they need to reach happiness I can only imagine what it would do for all the communities in our society. Few people still look at Obergefell V. Hodges as a “loss” for society, but how could that be I ask you? A court case that has now made it legal for any couple to get married regardless of gender and by this change offering even more liberty to choose how we wanted to live our own lives then the year before. Let’s not forget that it once was unimaginable for women to vote let alone an interracial couple get married, and yet here we are, making even more feats in the name of liberty.
Freedom to choose all these different details about our life has drastic effects on more than just our own home too. We can pursue any career choice which now allows us to do more than work a simple 5-9 job that we despise. Waking up and heading to a job we love is one of the many advantages with liberty that will not only add happiness to our lives but also drive us to work harder. There is schools that we choose from that can teach us about any possible career choice we want, whether it’s being a welder or becoming a doctor. When we get our pay checks and salaries we can decide exactly how we want to spend them and what we want to acquire. In this sense the liberty each of us has even allows us to choose what businesses survive and what businesses don’t. All of the choices and decisions we make that have more impact than most realize is even possible thanks too liberty.
It is clear that choice and liberty are synonymous, and that is truly what it comes down to. Liberty to me has always meant just that, the freedom to choose. When I see the “status quo” and am not satisfied with it the best thing to me is I don’t have to be. The fact that any one person can wake up and do most anything they want to as long as doesn’t harm someone else is one of the greatest privileges granted with freedom and liberty. We have all these choices and decisions we make every day without even realizing it that were unimaginable 100 years ago. All of this makes me look to the future with a very significant amount of hope and enthusiasm. It makes me truly feel that any of us in this society are able to make a significant difference in what goes on and most of us never even realize it. Did Rosa Parks ever expect to be remembered as someone who helped bring segregation to an end? I imagine all she thought on that bus in 1955 was that she was in no mood to move for someone else, especially for a completely illegitimate reason none the less. Yet here we are, in a society that is still continuously moving towards even more freedom and liberties, where just about every person you meet knows the name Rosa Parks. Alan Turing, a name not so many know, is one of the contributing reasons the Allies were able to win World War 2. He is responsible for helping bring an end to one of the most dangerous regimes by breaking the unbreakable code, the Enigma. In doing so he not only helped win the war, he became one of the grandfathers to modern day computers. He was charged with the crime of homosexuality and sentenced on March 31st 1952. Alan was sentenced to chemical treatment, and he committed suicide shortly after. This is just one of the many travesties that are almost never seen today and having more liberty means everyone is safe from being subjected to something so heinous.
When I think about freedom and liberty I also think about how any one of us can do something great and be remembered for years to come, whether it’s manning the helm of significant advancements in technology, or refusing to give up your freedom and liberties and standing up to those who wish to control you like Rosa Parks. It also means not having to fear being prosecuted by your government for what you choose to due in your spare time, no matter who you are. I see liberty as a chance for every person to pursue their dreams. It is also one of the few accommodations we have that is always worth defending.
* Tanner Davis is a 20 year old college student pursuing a degree in business. He has been following politics for quite a while and he is a proud libertarian. Â
Latest posts by Being Libertarian (see all)
- Ron Paul Revolution Takes Over The Libertarian Party - May 30, 2022
- Secession: The Lost Aspect of Federalism - April 16, 2022
- Democracy & Freedom: A Contradiction in Terms - February 15, 2022
