Throughout this weeks readings, there have been many intense themes such as individuality, faith, loneliness, etc. One theme that really stood out to me during the reading was freedom. Freedom through the readings is not talked about as in our amendments such as freedom of speech, or the right to bear arms, but instead it is being talked about more as your independence as an individual. Through the years the question of “is freedom really free” has became more and more popular. After reading the piece that really focused on freedom, and Dr.Absher’s blog, it really got me thinking on why people question is freedom is really free. We as people have free will, we have the right to make our own decisions no matter what they are. A very good example that explains freedom is in the book when the narrator explains how his liver is diseased, and that he refuses to fix it. He continues to explain that he is refusing to get medical treatment “out of spite”.  The narrator specifically states:

“My liver is bad, well – then let it get even worse”

Now you might question why one would even say this, or come to this point? The narrator is showing that he has the freedom to make the choice that he wants to make, regardless of his injury or disease. The question still arises that if we are able to have our own sense of free will, then why do we question if freedom is really free? In Dr.Absher’s blog, there is a clear explanation about how freedom must be demonstrated through rebellion. Maybe this could be some insight to our answer. We believe that freedom is not really free because we choose to rebel against everything that we can. Going back to the example with the narrator refusing medical treatment for his liver disease, you can see clearly that he is rebelling just to have a choice that he wants to make. He is going against the advice that the medical professionals would give him to treat his liver disease to fulfill his free-will and the freedom that he has in refusing medical treatment.

Going further in the discussion of freedom, it is only right that we talk about what is known as the “most advantageous advantage”. The most advantageous advantage actually helps us explain why we would show rebellion, just to prove our freedom. The narrator states that:

“…And what if it so happens that a man’s advantage sometimes not only may, but even must, consist exactly in his desiring under certain conditions what is harmful to himself and not what is advantageous.”

This is saying that we will harm ourselves just so we feel free. We will push away our only happiness, we will harm our on physical bodies, we will drive the people who are having a positive impact on the society away just because we want to prove we have freedom. Sometimes having to prove that we have freedom or a free will harms us more than does us any good. The answer on whether or not freedom is really free can be so back and forth, it is really how you look at the situation and your opinion. Sure we have the right to speak up, and give us a sense of freedom, but on the other hand, we also harm ourselves just to feel a sense a freedom or free will. So the question is up to you, do you believe that freedom is really free?

I found this really interesting Ted Talks video about freedom on youtube. If you would like to watch it, click here.

 

I hope you enjoyed my post! Comments are always appreciated!

Picture this, you are at a party, but none of your friends are there yet. You are bored out of your mind so what do you do? Sit down and pull out your phone immediately checking social media. The question is, why is it that every time we are bored or have “down time” we turn to our phones and look at social media? We all do it, whether it is scrolling through facebook looking at videos, or snapchat seeing what your friends are doing that night. It is almost like a bad habit that no one can break. Through the years, technology and social media have had more of an impact on our lives and it is almost as if we are dependent on all of it. I believe that the social phenomenon of turning to our phones and social media when we are bored could actually be put to an end if we learned that we do not need our phones 24/7. When we are bored, it could mean that inside we could be feeling empty or lost. We use our phone and social media so that we can feel connected to the world, when in all reality its disconnecting us from the real world that is around us. I found this really interesting article about a woman who decided to quit social media for a month, and she talks about how it actually changed her life. You can find the article here. Relating this theme to what we have been reading about this week, Soren Kierkegaard talks about the rotation method. The rotation method is a mechanism that is used in order to try and avoid boredom. A quote that really stuck out to me explaining boredom from Soren Kierkegaard is:

“Those who bore others are the mob, the crowds, the infinite multitude of men in general. Those who bore themselves are the elect, the aristocracy; and it is a curious fact that those who do not bore themselves usually bore others, while those who bore themselves entertain others.”

Shortening and simplifying this, if you are a person who is so called the “life of the party”, outside of that party, crowd, or group that you are leading you are a person who bores themselves. On the other hand, if you are a so called “follower” you are the person who will bore others that are in the crowd. Its almost as if your mood brings everyone else down and gives them a sense of boredom. All of this relates to the social phenomenon of using phones to avoid boredom because it talks about how if you are in a crowd, bored, and you take out your phone to try and decrease amount of boredom that you have. While doing this, not only are you taking yourself out of the real world, but you could also be boring the other people that are around you no matter what your surrounding is. Will the social phenomenon of being attached to our phones ever end? Maybe, or maybe not. I do feel that it would be an interesting social experiment to see if people were able to delete their social media and stop feeling as if they need their phone at every second of the day to make them feel complete.