Freedom...?

For centuries the word "freedom" has been a topic of debate, and for good reason. There are so many different views of what freedom truly means and what influences it has on our daily lives. According to the American Heritage College Dictionary the word freedom means "The Condition of being free of constraints. To me, the word freedom is being able to achieve anything you want to. It is being able to change your surrounding environment how you want it to be. Many questions have been asked about whether we are truly free of constraints or if everything is predetermined by events that have already transpired. Some believe that it is indeed true that we are not free, that nothing happens freely, and that nothing happens by chance, everything is determined to happen precisely as it does down to the smallest detail. If this statement is true then we are not free, we live a life of predetermined events. In this paper I will discuss many topics regarding freedom including the idea of predetermined events, the use of consequences, and a look back in history at freedom and how it has changed. Through these issues I will explain my idea of freedom and why I believe that I am free.

In the 1700's before The United States of America was a country it was under the control of England. The King of England imposed laws and taxes that the people of America saw as unlawful and down right wrong. The constraints forced upon the people were taking their freedom away. However change soon occurred, the men and women of America Revolted against England and to make a long story short they were able to gain freedom from Britain. How were they able to gain freedom? Was this change of power predetermined, did this all happen by chance or did people have a choice? In my opinion, if humans were not free and everything was predetermined then the country of the United States of America would not exist today, we would have continued on living under the England and its constraining laws. The laws set by the King of England would have stood forever without change. The people would be unable to freely change their views and revolt they would have lived the inevitable result of past events.

It is stated that we have no choice in what is going to happen and that everything is a result of what has already transpired. A situation in which this would be true is if a building collapsed due to events that took place before hand to cause the collapse of the building. An example of an event that would cause the collapse of the building to be inevitable would be if a building was made and screws were accidentally not put on. Because of excessive weight on the piece with the missing screws it causes the building to collapse. The building was predetermined to fall because the screws were accidentally missing; it had no choice it had to collapse. All of this is true in relation to the building but this example of predetermined events causing other events to be inevitable is false when relating this concept to humans. The reason is because as humans we have the ability to change our surroundings. We are able to act on events that have happened already and change them.

If humans did not have the ability to change things in their environment then we would be like the bridge, not free, constrained to the inevitable result of what has already transpired. However, as free people

we are able to change predetermined events. An example that supports this claim would be a situation where a parent has been a bad influence on his or her child by teaching the child poor life values such as laziness or lack of responsibly. If a child grew up with parents who taught him bad morals then it would seem that child was predetermined to fail based off of what he was taught. The false values that the parents taught the child have sent him down a path of failure. Nonetheless the child still has the opportunity to succeed. This opportunity to succeed is made possible by the fact that we as human beings are free. We have the ability to do what we want how we want it no matter the events that have already occurred. As the child matures into a young adult he has the freedom of choosing what he or she wants to do. He can go to college to get an education and become successful and not live by the bad lessons taught by his parents.

The idea of freedom is sometimes difficult to understand and because of this there are many different views to what freedom actually is. My opinion of freedom is having the ability to choose what you want to do. Having the ability to make your own choices allows you to not be constrained by events that have occurred in the past. Freedom is also the ability to change, if you do not like something then you are free to do what you want. We are always free to change our values, broaden our knowledge, change how we live; this is why I believe we are free. We are not constrained by anything. Being free is having a choice, the building that collapsed did not have a choice, its fate was predetermined.

Answering the question of whether I am free is easy but the question of whether or not all human beings are free is a difficult one. In other countries different rules are set and freedoms become an uncertainty. Some countries impose different sets of laws and different consequences. For example in an African culture it is ok to sacrifice the life of an animal however in America it