One of the greatest privileges of being human is the element of free will, ability for each individual to make informed choices & decision based on their personal discretion and perception of the world. Arguably, the concept of free will can not be generalised among all humans because it is a factor that is not attributed to being human, there are some humans in less civilised nations and countries who are not capable of enjoying the freedom they deserve based on their environment, society, governmental laws and ethics which solely depends on the kind system of government such nation operates.
From my own opinionated perspective in some ways I consider free Will to be an illusion, which is one of the greatest critics against libertarian theory of the press. In the surface it might look like we are free but we are not, still not in a bad way. Every human is bound by specific laws, rules, principles and ethics regardless of Which nation we reside in. It is a form of social contract humans entered consciously or unconsciously to create order in the social system. Laws and constitutions are made to create restrictions and limitations for the conduct of humans.
In the stone age, when humans lived based on instinct, their sole aim was to survive regardless of the cost, which includes hunting, territory and property acquisition et.c These are the major priorities of humans during the stone age, they were not bound by laws or constitution, they lived based on personal instinct and principles despite that there was lack of security for lives and property because any large group or clan at their own will could just decide to raid another clan in order to enslave and loot their belongings. Which is a common act among the ancient Vikings.
Despite the privilege of exercising their free will they had no sense of peace and security, which is one of the major reasons humans entered into a social contract, According to Thomas Hobbes one of the individual that propagated social contract theory. He believed that without the existence of a superpower or central of authority their can be no orderliness among humans. The personal desires of humans will always make us constitute nuisance in the social system. Humans gave up their sense of freedom and belonging, their birth right which is free will for security and protection of lives and property.
It is evident that freedom comes at a cost and one of the system that has guaranteed the practice of freedom among humans is democracy, even if it only exist on the surface. Humans are social animals, from time to time we are bound to engage in things that will create chaos in the eco-system and the society at large.
In the present generation, we have countries that gives their citizens exclusive right in order to practice their free will to full extent, for example countries like Germany, A well developed country, Among a lot of Benefits that comes with living in Germany, they created a payment system out of their taxation to make available monthly funds for the unemployed, according to my knowledge of it the amount is around £420-450 Euros, which is not taxable according to German constitution. I so much appreciate this innovative idea because I believe if such idea was utilised across the world and in places such as Nigeria, it will lessen the burden on the unemployed graduates who are unable to secure a job.
But regardless of the great benefit offered by German government, we now have citizens who gladly takes advantage of the paying system and decide to remain unemployed regardless of the availability of employment. Because it is within there right to do so and they gladly take advantage of this loop hole in the constitution. This is one the great disadvantages that is attributed to exercising free will, due to this indecent act among some German citizens, there is less man power for the available work force, no one wants to work any more, since they get paid anyway.
Are we really free? It definitely sounds like a rhetorical question. In the general sense we are born free with the privilege of exercising our free will as we see fit, it is one of the privileges that separates us from animals. But then while exercising our free will we are bound to infringe on other people's rights, in order to ensure everyone's right is protected we now have laws and constitutions that we humans must abide by which might seem like it has put us in bondage but without it, it is almost impossible for we humans to act in order.
Based on our manner of living in this present era, the need to abide by rules and regulations might start to feel burdensome especially in this era where people abuse power for their own benefits. Looking at the brighter side, compared to other species that exist on earth believe me we are still a lot better, I mean imagine being hunted for sport or fun, what about being kept in cages like chickens for consumption, it is indeed funny the laws we abide in are not created to take our freewill from us but to ensure we don't exercise our free will in a way that will endanger others.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "The concept of free Will" in hive learners community.
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