Quote of the Day - 03/26/2012

We had no external limitations, no overriding authority, no imposed pattern of existence. We created our own links with the world, and freedom was the very essence of our existence. - Simone De Beauvoir in The Prime of Life: The Autobiography of Simone De Beauvoir

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Have you had a period of your life like the quote describes? The absolute of ‘no’ - ‘no external limitation, no overriding authority, no imposed pattern of existence’ - is what gives me pause. It is more interesting to think about a continuum:

Where are you right now on the continuum? Where have you been at other times in your life? Is there a correlation with age or financial security or relationships?

Often it is our interpretation of external limitations, overriding authority, and imposed pattern of existence that is more critical than anything that can be measured exactly. If the pattern of existence imposed is what we want to do anyway, is it counter to our concept of ‘freedom?’

Quote of the Day - 1/18/2012

Freedom is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. - Viktor E. Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning

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The quote today was written by a concentration camp survivor. The book was originally published in the 1950s. It provides historical examples from that time period but the conclusions are still very relevant today.

Here are some tangents my thoughts took:

• The connotation for freedom is overwhelmingly positive, whereas anarchy is scary. Is it because we associate responsibleness with freedom but not with anarchy?
• Law and regulations bound freedoms in modern society. Aren’t they in place to define responsible behavior? What if the bounds themselves seem arbitrary? What if they trend toward benefiting the few at the expense of the many?
• Do we assume that everyone has a similar understanding of responsible behavior and - therefore - there is no need to overtly talk about it as much as we talk about our desire for freedom?