I always like to write about freedom, I do not think that there are too many words on this subject, but rather it seems that there are too few, that it is still very necessary to declare to the four winds that freedom is the greatest good we can have.
A quick review of the news allows us to realize that freedom has many enemies. In different parts of the world there are people who suffer because their freedom is violated, because they lost the ability to choose how they want to live their lives.
Many people do not even have the right to choose who they are going to marry, they have no say in such a private and personal matter as who they are going to sleep with, who they are going to have their children with. It is others who decide for them. And that's because for those people freedom has no meaning.
A few days ago I received a shocking news. Mr. Fernando Villavicencio, who was a candidate for the next elections in Ecuador, was murdered in the city of Quito as he was leaving a political event...
I never met Mr. Villavicencio, I don't know if he was a good or bad person, I don't know if he loved his wife and children, if he paid his taxes or not, I don't know if he was a good politician or not. But all that is irrelevant because the important thing is that he paid with his life for the simple fact of aspiring to be president of his country. Some enemy of freedom attempted against that right, some enemy of freedom made the decision to liquidate him so that he could not go forward.
These actions always impress me because I see in them the presence of the enemies of freedom, that is why I never tire of writing about it.
One of the great differences between human beings and the rest of the species that inhabit our planet is that we can choose. While all animals are slaves of instincts and have to blindly follow what nature has imprinted in their genes, humans can do things differently, we have the ability to overcome instincts, we can postpone, for example, sexual enjoyment to complete a task that leads us to a higher goal.
Humans are not slaves of instincts because we can decide, but for that decision to be fully effective we need it to be made freely, because we want it, because we desire it, not because someone else has imposed it.
Without freedom we move away from the human species and move closer to the world of animality.
I have been fortunate to have lived a long time with great freedoms, now I have a few restrictions, but fundamentally I still have the possibility to decide on important issues in my life. I am free to write this article, to read the texts I want, to eat the food I want, to choose my friends solely by my own free will. I would love it if all people could have those freedoms. I would love for my granddaughters to be able to live in a world where they too can make their own choices. That's why it's important not to let our guard down in defense of freedom.
Every time I write something about freedom I think of my mother. She is eighty-seven years old. Every day she gets up and freely decides how she is going to live that day. She doesn't accept anyone imposing any kind of routines on her. If she wanted to have breakfast late or early she decides, if she wanted to eat chicken or fish she decides, if she is going to have four cups of coffee or just one she decides, if she goes to the market to sell her goods or stays at home sleeping she decides. Her children make suggestions and recommendations, but in the end it is she who has the last word.
In her great wisdom she usually tells us that at her age she cannot give up her ability to choose. That as long as she feels life flowing through her veins, she will be the one to make her decisions. I think about that and I don't see any sign of obstinacy or caprice, but the clear conviction of a person who could know freedom throughout her life.
Freedom is our greatest conquest as a human species, the greatest good we can have, but unfortunately it is not eternal and can be easily lost... Preserving it requires the commitment of everyone...
I am making this post as part of the initiative convened by friend @galenkp for week 166.
Thank you for your time.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
