Love Never Fails BUT We Fail In Love

Chapter 19 || Liberty

"Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty."- Will Durant

Liberty and freedom come with the balance of power and dedication. It gives us freedom of expression but with responsibilities. No one can enjoy liberty without any responsibility, and if they are dreaming of having it, then, sorry to say, it won't last as long as they think.

Since evolution, human beings have always looked forward to stability and security. Our forefathers bind the society under one group by framing rules or sets of norms; religious norms are the best example of this. You as a human being can't have 100 percent security and then 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We must sometimes give up some of our rights to society; otherwise, we will be a society-less group. And for a human being, it is impossible to live society less, because our 24 hours of life is always connected with other members of society.

Every childhood comes with the dream of having full freedom and liberty after achieving a certain age, which they think is adulthood. We imagine as children that an adult has complete freedom and liberty, and that they live on their own terms. But after we become adults, we realize what an adult means to the society. An adult is expected to pay taxes on time, to follow a set of laws, to earn money to support their family, to balance a relationship, to focus on health, and to fulfill a variety of other responsibilities. Even an adult can't make an excuse for making mistakes like we do in our childhood. That is why people say, "We used pencil in childhood, but after growing up, we use a pen because childhood mistakes were erasable but adulthood mistakes were not."

But liberty also brings the power and right to reject; it is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. Liberty gives you the right to choose. It can take you to the highest mode of happiness and satisfaction if you choose the right option. But some people give up liberty for temporary happiness, which makes them losers rather than winners. After a while, nothing can compare with the right support and respect, because only liberty can give you both at the same time. So let your liberty root itself, because once it roots, it will give you the branches and leaves of happiness and success.

Once I asked one of my friends named lazy_sane about liberty and its important in life, she replied awesomely that "Liberty is when people let you believe in your decisions. You are free to take decisions and you know who are supporting you, will just say you know the best for yourself." She explained it beautifully.

But somehow, in our daily life, we face many breaches of liberty and freedom. Sometimes we get hurt too, due to the lack of liberty to live our own life. Our parents, friends, lovers, and society all played important roles in our lives. But we cannot make everyone happy at the same time. This means some of them will feel cornered or maybe they will think it is a violation of the liberty rights they had with them. And it is very common in the case of parents. If you go against their words, they will ask for their right to be act like parents and will make you shut up. But they forget that you too have the right to reject or accept their words. Sometimes your friends ask you or force you to do some dare, and they make you obey them because they think they have the right to do so. You are his/her best friend, so they have freedom to enjoy their liberty to go against or for you. But they forget that because you are his/her best friend, you have the same right to refuse or accept the deal. You too were born with liberty, and the friendship deed was based on your freedom too.

Because we are all social animals, society also plays a major role in deciding the set of norms for human civilization. Society takes their liberty and freedom to choose norms for us. Sometimes these norms destroy our daily life routine, but we still follow them. Different societies come with different norms, which sometimes conflict with law and enforcement. For example, the legal age for drinking alcohol in the USA is 21 years, but in many European countries they start to drink at the age of 16 or 18 years and it is legal there. So, different societies come up with different definitions of freedom and liberty. Having some rights may be termed as liberty in some societies but differs in other societies at the same time.