Freedom & Liberty

hey... ok so tonight i went to see the movie 'Amazing Grace' it's about the abolition of slavery in the british empire... it's was ok... the story was great and some moments were great, but as a whole it just didn't impact me much... but i think i'll go again just to see what a second viewing does...

anyway... a few of us were traveling together in a car and one of my friends decided that they didn't want to wear their seat belt... their excuse was along the lines of 'it's the first step to a total lack of freedom'... i can't remember all their theory, but basically it was that forced seat belt wearing would eventually lead to a totalitarian society...

ok... so is it just me or is this a little extreme? i know they were kinda tongue in cheek, but i believe part of them was serious... ok, so this poses the question: is the loss of a freedom, designed to protect people, really that bad?

nearly all of us live in a world where we don't have total freedom, instead we have laws and social regulations that restrict us in certain ways... usually with the intent being to protect us from harm... trying to find a balance between safety and liberty...

it's not perfect... which makes sense as it's humans who are making the rules and humans are inherently flawed...

so do we,as responsible citizens, simply disregard laws or rules that seem ridiculous?

i know some of my friends who are into social justice might say yes...

i'm not sure... i guess if a law went against something i strongly believed in then i would probably break it...

but i also believe in having as safe a community as we can manage... which means that there will inevitability be a loss of freedom...

hmm... i just worked out that i'm a bit of a fence sitter on this issue...

i want to change the word, make it better, but i don't see the sense in petty defiance... my personal philosophy is to try to model as much as i can respect for others... i guess i figure that if everyone did actually treat everyone else as they want to be treated the world would be a much better place...

i bit of wishful thinking i know... but hey at least it's positive...

despite all this i fully support the efforts of groups like the salvation army and make poverty history and stop the traffik to create large scale social reform...

yeah... well that's me for tonight...

let me know what you think...

thanks for listening

- sye :)