Freedom
Freedom. It is a big topic. But who could live without freedom? So let me try to share something valuable in this article.
Instead of diving into some abstract concepts, I want to tell you a short story.
A little girl was diagnosed with heart disease and one of their doctors told her father that she should not go to school alone. They suggested that she should stay home and always have someone accompany her in whatever she does.
To heed or not to heed the doctor’s instruction, that is a question. To obey or not to obey, that is also a question.
The little girl’s father eventually made a bold decision. Instead of following the doctor’s instructions, he set his daughter free and let her grow up like any other child. During her teenage years, apart from occasionally being called out for extra heart exams during the annual school health check-up, the girl grew up vibrantly. She later ventured alone to different cities to experience different lifestyles, then left her own country to study abroad independently, and eventually settled down in the host country.
The interesting point in this story is a “what if” question. What if that father had followed the doctor’s instruction and “confined” his daughter at home, always living in a dependent way? It’s easy to do so because when we find ourselves in a tough situation, we naturally seek help or solutions from experts or authorities.
In our one and only lives, there are points where being a decision-maker becomes the most challenging role. There is no rule to guide us on how to be the “best” decision-maker. Sometimes, it all comes down to our mindset, values, and our understanding of certain issues.
No one ever asked the little girl’s father why he made such a decision, but the outcome was that the little girl was able to grow up freely.
There are various “terminologies” to define what freedom is, such as self-government, self-determination, independence, sovereignty, etc. Freedom is like a multifaceted crystal polygon with many aspects. From ancient masters to modern academic elites, human beings have continuously explored the complex of freedom. But I believe that freedom is essentially a natural state.
As long as we are alive, we are free.
If we consider our lives to be blessed, it has to encompass a fundamental meaning that our lives are free – that we can determine our own paths, not dictated by “authority” or “expert”, and so on.
In other words, each one of us has free will to determine our lives.
Problems
But the above conclusion is only partially correct, and it primarily holds true at the philosophical level. After all, human beings don’t live in isolation or in primitive forests. Theologians or priests would agree that Adam and Eve settled in a civilized world after being expelled from Eden.
When many individuals, like multiple Adams and Eves, have to coexist under the same roof, problems inevitably arise. “House rule” often clashes with an individual’s free will. Similar to the previous story, there exists a fundamental conflict between that little girl’s freedom and the authority’s opinion.
Someone has brilliantly explained this dilemma. He is Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau’s ideal man is a “savage man” living in the “state of nature” untouched by the corrupting society.[1] In this state, he or she possesses nature freedom and is not conditioned by authority or law imposed upon them. They are supposed to pursue their own interests freely. However, Rousseau also admits the necessity of establishing a system of laws and orders through a social contract.
So, generation by generation, human beings find themselves incarnated within different “houses” built in various architectural styles – republics, democracies, monarchies, authoritarians, or even anarchies.
What kind of house is most suitable for multiple Adams and Eves living together? Or what kind of pathway can lead Adam and Eve to a happy life? Endless debates have shaped our perceptions around these topics. Here, Madeleine Albright attempted to compare democracy with authoritarianism:
“Democracy…demands the best from everyone and is grounded in respect for human rights, individual freedom, and social responsibility. By contrast, dictators seek only obedience, and there is nothing inspiring about that.” [2]
Little wonder why many people desire to immigrate to democratic countries, and yes, I’m one of them. Earning a passport to freedom is something we should always be grateful. If “the best from everyone” can be called upon to create our lives in democratic countries, life will definitely be less cynical than living in authoritarian countries, despite the acknowledged faults of democracy as argued by Ms. Albright. [3]
In explaining why people might also be unhappy with democratic government, Ms. Albright partially attributed it to the absence of technological innovation; she borrowed a metaphor from Silicon Valley stating that ‘people are talking to their governments on 21st-century technology. The governments listen to them on 20th-century technology and provide 19th-century responses.’ [4]
Happiness
If technological innovation is crucial to an individual’s happiness, Ms. Albright might appreciate Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view on education. Rousseau’s mission was to assist the natural man in “surviving corrupt society” while keeping innate goodness unpolluted. [5]
Rousseau asserts that “every society must choose between making a man or a citizen”. [6] However, I believe human beings have no choice – if making a man (a natural man) is God’s task, then the only job a society can undertake is to make a citizen.
As we know, law and education are likely two dominant tools to shape a man into a “citizen”.
In his well-known book “Emile, or On Education”, Rousseau outlined the stages for a fictional boy named Emile to “evolve” into society. Basically, there are four stages:
- Making sure Emile is physically strong💪.
- Teaching Emile to interact with the real world for basic experience, learning through observation🦋.
- Training Emile in a trade⚒️.
- Cultivating Emile’s sentiment💕.
Rousseau believes that “…we have made an active and thinking being. It remains for us, in order to complete the man, only to make a loving and feeling being – that is to say, to perfect reason by sentiment”. [7] This is an ambitious goal.
The Wright Brothers, who invented the world’s first airplane, serve as the quintessential illustration of stage 2 education. Their highest level of education was 3- or 4-years of high school and didn’t even receive diplomas. One of them dropped out of high school at 18 to create his printing business. They observed how birds flew in the sky, drawing inspiration to refine the making of airplanes, for example, “changing the angle of the ends of their wings to make their bodies roll right or left.” [8]
It is unknown whether Wright Brothers’ father ever read Rousseau’s Emile, but if you are parents now, I hope you find inspiration from Rousseau on how to provide the right amount of “education” to keep your little monsters’ inner psyche vibrant and strong. Why?
Because we need that psyche and vibrance to become creators. Isn’t that the path to happiness?
[END]
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Footnotes:
[1] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rousseau/?source=post_elevate_sequence_page—————————
[2] Madeleine K. Albright, ‘The Coming Democratic Revival’ (2021) 100(6) Foreign Affairs.
[3] “Madeleine Albright on fascism, democracy, and diplomacy”, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/madeleine-albright-on-fascism-democracy-and-diplomacy/
[4] Ibid.
[5] William Boyd, The Educational Theory of Jean Jacques Rousseau (Russell & Russell, 1963) 127.
[6] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile or On Education (New York: Basic Books, 1979) 39. (You may also check out the link on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/emileoroneducati00rous/page/203/mode/1up )
[7] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile or On Education (New York: Basic Books, 1979) 203. (You may also check out the link on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/emileoroneducati00rous/page/203/mode/1up )
[8] Wikipedia “Wright Brothers”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers
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