Bearing in mind the health and state of our western culture and society today, do you think we have too much freedom?

It is a good thing that the title of this post has the word western in it since freedom around the world is still greatly diminished in some countries. In what we call the western modern world, freedom is a term that often gets tossed around in hope we will somehow get what we think we deserve; our rights. Right for this and right for that. We are all very loud when it comes to wanting but we tend to stay silent when the giving part demands its place in the spotlight. There is no receiving without giving and there is no freedom without responsibility.

There is no such thing as absolute freedom. Where your freedom begins, mine stops. It has to be like that in order for us to function like a society. We can talk about how a person wants to kill someone but is not free to do so because it will impact a freedom of another but there are less drastic examples to consider too. No matter how much we enjoy fast driving, we will slow down near schools and no matter how much that dress looks good, we will not steal it. Those are freedom restrictions that are necessary. Do not harm another is, in my opinion, a completely reasonable restriction to our freedom.

No matter how much I love that verse, especially when I hear Janis's voice, sometimes I hate the truth behind it. We always have something to lose and we will never be completely free. Maybe we don't need to anyway. Maybe happiness lies in something else.

I just got back from the store before I started writing this post and my ovaries have once again been dried up. Sometimes I think how supermarkets should be advertised as a free birth control. Why are kids so terrible these days? There were not like that before. They scream and shout, run around, knock down products, hit people and parents are just standing there doing nothing, encouraging their freedom to express themselves.

Why should that child be free to scream in my ear and I am not free to do the same to him or his parent? That does not seem fair. Why is the entire supermarket suffering because of one spoiled brat who had too much sugar and too little "NO" words said to him? Because we, as humans, are sometimes idiots. Yeah, yeah, it is not the child's fault. The parents are to blame. WRONG! IT IS ITS FAULT!

We made a big mistake with introducing rights to children because we failed to teach them that rights and freedom come with responsibility for your actions. I am all for protecting our children from harm but I know several of them who have blackmailed their own parents with calling child protective services or various hotlines and lying about how parents are beating them if a child does not get what it wants. You let me watch tv or I will tell people you are abusing me! That is the harsh reality we are living in. We are being controlled by our own children and why? Because we want them to be free no matter what. Do you know what those kids will be when they grow up? Jerks. They will be jerks who will make other peoples lives a living hell. They will be taking freedom from others because they learned that only their freedom matters.

You do not have to punish your child physically but you do have to punish him in some way to teach him that doing something wrong has consequences. I see parents who allow their children to hit them and justify that by look how cute she is. Nope, not cute. You child will hit another child because it was not taught hitting is wrong. Your child needs to learn about taking responsibility for its actions. Depending on his age, maybe that responsibility includes cleaning his room or taking the garbage out, maybe it is setting the table or being polite to others, maybe it is to know when to be loud and when to be quiet, maybe it means to offer help when help is needed and not stare at his SMARTphone while being a STUPIDperson. Oh, and just to remind you, if your child is 3 years old, no, it does not need a smartphone. It needs a smart parent.

Everything starts with children and with us teaching them right from wrong with right being respecting freedom of others and wrong being thinking only about yourself. If we do the job right, those children will grow up to be responsible human beings who appreciate everything this world has to offer them and it has so much to offer.

Just think about how truly blessed you are to be alive in this day and age, especially if you are a woman or have skin color that is anything but white. Nowadays, we enjoy certain freedom rights that our ancestors fought hard to provide for us. Are we grateful? How do we show that gratitude? By obsessing over what others will think about us. Who the F cares? You really have so much freedom that you can choose bondage. You can choose to do with your life whatever you want. You can move or be still, you can do what you want, say and think what you want. You can choose your own partner and friends and as long as you respect others and do no harm to anyone, why does it matter what others think about you? It is your life, not theirs and you ARE free to do with it as you please. Whenever you need a reminder that you really are free, go for a run, dance or dive under water and observe how your entire body is free to move, your each and every muscle, your each and every thought.

First of all, I do not think that there is anything wrong with the world I live in. I wrote "I" because I do realize that the world I live in may not have to be the world you live in. Maybe your world is terrible, mine is not. It is just fine. It has its ups and downs. It has happy people and sad people but contrast is a good thing. We do not see it all the time, but it is. I believe that we should always be proud but never satisfied. This world can always be better but that does not mean that is not good now and that it does not provide everything we need. There is so much good, so much beauty, diversity and amazing people. You can keep your focus on them or you can think about everything that is wrong. The choice is yours. I choose to remain positive and live by my philosophy of happiness, but that is me. Stubbornly stuck in my happy bubble and refusing to get out. Do not fix what is not broken, my world works. Does yours?

You are always free to choose but the thing you have to realize (sooner or later) is that your every choice has a consequence. Your life is a series of cause and effect moments. You are free, we all are but there never was a freedom without a cost. Luckily, our freedom does not have to be defended with blood but it does with rational thinking and responsible behavior. If I am to be persuaded that the health and state of our western culture and society are wrong which I'm not but for the philosophical purposes of continuing this train of thought let's say, hypothetically, that the world is in chaos. That chaos is not brought on by too much freedom but is a direct result of too little responsibilities for our actions. As long as you are blaming the schools, your parents, society, tv or politicians, you are part of the problem and the solution will not please you.

Do you know who said that? One of the greatest pacifists this world has ever seen and yet, there were people who hated him. Know that even when you will do what is right, there will always be those who will be against you and that is one of the consequences you have to accept. You will never be able to please everybody, why even try? It is a complete waste of your time and energy. Please yourself. Be happy. Spread love and happiness whenever you are and do not worry about what others think. Take responsibility for your actions and thoughts and as long as you approach each moment as an opportunity to smile or make others smile, your world will be just fine. Change starts with you and it starts with me. There is great strength in numbers but each and every one of those numbers is an individual who took responsibility for his own freedom.