As much as possible, I shall try to make this sound like a GP essay, but I won't follow the structure to the T. It's too much effort, and too restrictive, which would contradict the title anyway.
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Freedom
The Straits Times published an article on the front page today about schools punishing students who 'flame' their teachers. The first thing that came to mind was "whatever happened to freedom of speech?" Even on their personal online diaries, people still do not have absolute freedom to say what they want; if what they say is deemed to be harmful to other people. This is not the only issue in which the topic of freedom is involved. What exactly is freedom anyway? Freedom is the ability to do what one desires to do without inhibition by other factors. The importance of freedom in the world cannot be denied. It is an aspect of humanity. Robots and machines have no freedom of thought and thus cannot be considered human. Freedom is also lauded to be able to make the situation better for people, for example, freedom of government by an oppressed people might empower them to take control of their fate and bring about necessary changes to their lives.
There are many different types of freedom; two of which are freedom of expression and freedom of thought. Freedom of expression consists of the ability to speak one's mind, to display works of art or to write a book, which is not bound to any restrictions. The liberty to practice one's religion and to be able to have views other than what anyone dictates comes under freedom of thought.
There is, however, a prerequisite to freedom. In order to have freedom, one must have the power, the capacity, or the right to obtain and maintain it. This power may be bestowed upon one, or it may be something that one is capable of getting by oneself. For example, without a constitution which bestows basic rights to its citizens, a country could technically be governed by a totalitarian government which controls everything its citizens do, and even think. In a state without a police force, people would not have the freedom to roam about at night as they face the danger of being victims of crime. For issues like freedom of expression and thought, on a social scale, the government dictates how much power the people can have. In this country, people are not allowed to demonstrate a cause without a license and might get arrested if they choose to do so. This is apparently to protect racial and religious harmony and the image of the country. If the country has too many demonstrations, investors might be uncertain of the country's stability and thus choose not to invest in it.
Yet another essential factor for freedom is the absence of an inhibition to carry out the desire. Inhibitions can come in the form of laws that prevent certain actions from being carried out, like laws which prohibit defamation of other people. Another form of inhibition is the consequence of the action. If the consequence is unfavorable, one might be unable to carry out the desired action. For example, if one can be tracked down on the Internet by one's school, then one might be discouraged to write derogatory remarks about one's teachers. If one thinks that one's friends might be upset by reading some contents in one's weblog, then one might think twice before putting it up to avoid conflict. These are some of the ways in which a person may be prevented from doing things he wants and so his freedom is limited in that aspect.
Some might argue that since freedom is important, everyone should want to have as much freedom as possible. That was the argument used by certain countries to attack other countries in order to 'liberate' the people there. However, this is not always the case. Some people might be ignorant of the rights which they are entitled to and thus not desire to obtain them. Others might just be contented with whatever freedom they have and do not seek to obtain more. If one has decent living conditions and wages, one would most probably be satisfied with what one has and would probably not think about fighting for more freedom as that might jeopardize one's comfortable situation.
Freedom is no doubt important in many ways. It is as relevant today as it is centuries ago. The issue may arise in many different forms and affect every one of us directly in some way or another. Thus it is necessary to be aware of one's rights in order not to compromise one's freedom.
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Ok, don't know how to end. Tried to leave references to several countries and issues as ambiguous as possible, but still fairly understandable, to avoid being sued or persecuted. Hopefully I won't be. If you find any odd words, sentences or phrases, please bring them to my attention so I can edit to make it more readable.
