FREEDOM VS. CONFINEMENT
Today, the globalized world is now
lucidly aware of what COVID-19 (Coronavirus) had brought; it has made
us all cease, to a hault; it is as if it had put an indefinite pause
in our lives.
It is clear that we are facing a costly reality, with human, economic and social consequences that nobody dared to predict less than three months ago, given the changing stages that the COVID19 pandemic offers us in each country and their states’ respective responses.
Let's focus on people, on how this new "model" of life is already affecting us; a system that has found many of us lose our freedom of movement in effort to drastically stifle the rate of infection, hospitalisation and deaths of the world’s populations. Perhaps we had not thought about this basic freedom before, nor would have thought imagined having to be confined to social isolation, one place for a long and uncertain period of time.
When one commits a crime, one can assume that depending on the severity, one faces the possibility of losing their freedom for abusing their freedom. But now it is a global phenomenon, where people, without having committed any inappropriate behavior, have lost that freedom of travel, of assembly, of exercise, of going out to eat, wherever we please. The human being is not prepared to be locked up, but is "condemned to be free" (Jean Paul-Sartre).
Freedom is a right, and if we look at dictatorships, to subdue the population - or democratic and justice systems - when a norm, a rule, etc. is broken, the first thing they take away from people is their right to freedom. Why? It is so commonplace for us: we are born free and we have a whole world ahead of us, what can stop us? Nothing. The human being is the most responsible for how they can manage their freedom. When it is taken away from us we feel bereft and frustrated to such a stark change.
We can hardly enjoy freedom, we lead a frenetic lifestyle, almost without stopping to think; new projects and new pushbacks arise, more work, more outings, to the point - as one Tertullian (from the radio) said - of not having been able to enjoy a meal with his children for a whole year.
Besides, in these still days of the early 21st century, has the freedom that we humans say we enjoy as much as we think we do have been lost? We are believed to have the freedom of self autonomy, but always within given rules by law; rules which are written from an esteemed "values" of a society. However in addition, we all find ourselves subjected with, to or under a culture, a religion or clerical law, ideals that are no longer our own that we have outgrown collectively, interwoven to an economic (and ideaological) system ... that, without immediately realizing it, limits us to act in complete freedom.
So what is freedom for the human being? For each of us it will have a different focus and interpretation, yet it is obvious for billions of people what we have sacrificed now, for many it was a freedom at its best. Now however, we have something that we did not have before: it is time, which we needed before and for which people, at some point in our lives, will have complained. Now we have it, but not in the conditions we would like, humans are permanently unsatisfied.
The life of a human, our lives, are not easy. Besides, we have the complexion and condition of being self-aware beings with intelligence, feelings and empathy. Perhaps, if we had none of that, we could achieve satisfaction attainably, a self satisfaction.
Time, this very important concept, can be used to learn things that schools do not teach us: to strengthen our skills, to be more creative and imaginative, to dare to do things that we are not usually good at, to learn to be well informed, to enjoy new music, a lot of things that can enrich us as human beings, help us to know ourselves better. Without a doubt, having this time also allows for our reflection and collection.
There is something glad to be had with this unorthodox break of our modern, fast paced, neck-break, high maintenance lives – to breifly value true life, freedom, and overall health; to appreciate the individual person around us, the little things in life and life itself that we were accustomed to not give importance to. This atypical situation can promote very positive things to ourselves and to those around us, an optimist would hope.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having its clear and costly collateral effects, in the economic and social sense of a world still cloaked, still recovering and turning by the long shadows of the 2008 global financial collapse. In regards to late responding governments like the UK and USA, the fight has just been settled between the costs of perserving their similar austere economic activities and protecting a civil populous from overwhelming hospitals and its care workers to collapse.
Like a pandemic, an effect that affects all, contemporary Climate Change is world encompassing in regards that no ecosystem is isolated from human industrial impact (some may argue it an economic and thus human freedom). Mired by the negatives of our impact, our forced hault in activity had brought world wide delight (albeit online) of wild life quickly remerging showing how much human life co-exists with biodiveristy. Cities in every continent that were previously draped in smog (nominally nitrous oxides) now enjoy record breakingly low air and noise pollution as roads are now clear of all but essential traffic, the waters are crystal clear; these are only the immediate examples. It may take another couple of months of climate recording and modelling to quantify how much of an impact we have inadvertently made a on the whole Earth – to protect ourselves initially from a deadly, physically nano-sized threat.
We know now that nature, and our scientific community have been patiently warning us and we have barely paid attention. It is a human, or indeed an animal nature to act to immediate threats and threats with insurmountable human cost to which we have always survived and thrived from experience, but such gradual change in atmospheric carbon and ocean plastic pollution flies beneath that radar for action – especially when we interweave our sense of freedom and prosperity to it.
As fairly noted by almost all world leaders at this precarious time, there will be an end to COVID-19. No doubt, we will look back at 2020 in more ways than one, and undoubtably as always the human population will survive to look back upon it; but perhaps this is (or we should see this as) the last prelude to the warning that nature is sorely giving us, that we are giving ourselves. Each person has a great opportunity to reflect in what we’re greatful to call humanity’s greatest period yet, let ourselves reflect. The society that emerges through will not be the same in the human abstracts and constructs. Indeed, in the past 100 years aftermaths of war, attack and tradgedy have left societies adapting several times over, rarely staying the same. Cruicially, its insperable relationship with nature should not remain the same either. For once let's listen full heartfuly.
It is clear that we are facing a costly reality, with human, economic and social consequences that nobody dared to predict less than three months ago, given the changing stages that the COVID19 pandemic offers us in each country and their states’ respective responses.
Let's focus on people, on how this new "model" of life is already affecting us; a system that has found many of us lose our freedom of movement in effort to drastically stifle the rate of infection, hospitalisation and deaths of the world’s populations. Perhaps we had not thought about this basic freedom before, nor would have thought imagined having to be confined to social isolation, one place for a long and uncertain period of time.
When one commits a crime, one can assume that depending on the severity, one faces the possibility of losing their freedom for abusing their freedom. But now it is a global phenomenon, where people, without having committed any inappropriate behavior, have lost that freedom of travel, of assembly, of exercise, of going out to eat, wherever we please. The human being is not prepared to be locked up, but is "condemned to be free" (Jean Paul-Sartre).
Freedom is a right, and if we look at dictatorships, to subdue the population - or democratic and justice systems - when a norm, a rule, etc. is broken, the first thing they take away from people is their right to freedom. Why? It is so commonplace for us: we are born free and we have a whole world ahead of us, what can stop us? Nothing. The human being is the most responsible for how they can manage their freedom. When it is taken away from us we feel bereft and frustrated to such a stark change.
We can hardly enjoy freedom, we lead a frenetic lifestyle, almost without stopping to think; new projects and new pushbacks arise, more work, more outings, to the point - as one Tertullian (from the radio) said - of not having been able to enjoy a meal with his children for a whole year.
Besides, in these still days of the early 21st century, has the freedom that we humans say we enjoy as much as we think we do have been lost? We are believed to have the freedom of self autonomy, but always within given rules by law; rules which are written from an esteemed "values" of a society. However in addition, we all find ourselves subjected with, to or under a culture, a religion or clerical law, ideals that are no longer our own that we have outgrown collectively, interwoven to an economic (and ideaological) system ... that, without immediately realizing it, limits us to act in complete freedom.
So what is freedom for the human being? For each of us it will have a different focus and interpretation, yet it is obvious for billions of people what we have sacrificed now, for many it was a freedom at its best. Now however, we have something that we did not have before: it is time, which we needed before and for which people, at some point in our lives, will have complained. Now we have it, but not in the conditions we would like, humans are permanently unsatisfied.
The life of a human, our lives, are not easy. Besides, we have the complexion and condition of being self-aware beings with intelligence, feelings and empathy. Perhaps, if we had none of that, we could achieve satisfaction attainably, a self satisfaction.
Time, this very important concept, can be used to learn things that schools do not teach us: to strengthen our skills, to be more creative and imaginative, to dare to do things that we are not usually good at, to learn to be well informed, to enjoy new music, a lot of things that can enrich us as human beings, help us to know ourselves better. Without a doubt, having this time also allows for our reflection and collection.
There is something glad to be had with this unorthodox break of our modern, fast paced, neck-break, high maintenance lives – to breifly value true life, freedom, and overall health; to appreciate the individual person around us, the little things in life and life itself that we were accustomed to not give importance to. This atypical situation can promote very positive things to ourselves and to those around us, an optimist would hope.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having its clear and costly collateral effects, in the economic and social sense of a world still cloaked, still recovering and turning by the long shadows of the 2008 global financial collapse. In regards to late responding governments like the UK and USA, the fight has just been settled between the costs of perserving their similar austere economic activities and protecting a civil populous from overwhelming hospitals and its care workers to collapse.
Like a pandemic, an effect that affects all, contemporary Climate Change is world encompassing in regards that no ecosystem is isolated from human industrial impact (some may argue it an economic and thus human freedom). Mired by the negatives of our impact, our forced hault in activity had brought world wide delight (albeit online) of wild life quickly remerging showing how much human life co-exists with biodiveristy. Cities in every continent that were previously draped in smog (nominally nitrous oxides) now enjoy record breakingly low air and noise pollution as roads are now clear of all but essential traffic, the waters are crystal clear; these are only the immediate examples. It may take another couple of months of climate recording and modelling to quantify how much of an impact we have inadvertently made a on the whole Earth – to protect ourselves initially from a deadly, physically nano-sized threat.
We know now that nature, and our scientific community have been patiently warning us and we have barely paid attention. It is a human, or indeed an animal nature to act to immediate threats and threats with insurmountable human cost to which we have always survived and thrived from experience, but such gradual change in atmospheric carbon and ocean plastic pollution flies beneath that radar for action – especially when we interweave our sense of freedom and prosperity to it.
As fairly noted by almost all world leaders at this precarious time, there will be an end to COVID-19. No doubt, we will look back at 2020 in more ways than one, and undoubtably as always the human population will survive to look back upon it; but perhaps this is (or we should see this as) the last prelude to the warning that nature is sorely giving us, that we are giving ourselves. Each person has a great opportunity to reflect in what we’re greatful to call humanity’s greatest period yet, let ourselves reflect. The society that emerges through will not be the same in the human abstracts and constructs. Indeed, in the past 100 years aftermaths of war, attack and tradgedy have left societies adapting several times over, rarely staying the same. Cruicially, its insperable relationship with nature should not remain the same either. For once let's listen full heartfuly.
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario
¡Gracias por aportar!