LIFEdevelopment.info - Chasing Utopia

Freedom

One of the great human needs is to be free to make choices. This episode explores what it means to be free. We can be restricted in our choices, or free to choose in many ways.

 

A - Freedom Is One of Life’s Basic Needs

If we struggle to survive physically day by day, it can be hard to make good choices in a range of life’s situations. This daily grind can narrow our perspective.

• People were staying all their lives in lines to get more food, more water, more heat.
• Everything went upside down. Then they said, "you are free now".
• Can you imagine wild animals living in cages suddenly becoming free? They didn’t know what to do with this freedom.
• They became so used to living as slaves they found it frightening to think of living in freedom.

1. How do you think our political freedom is related to our ability to meet our "higher" human needs?
2. Why do you think people who have been restricted in their basic personal freedom find it hard to exercise that freedom when they gain it?
3. Are there some kinds of freedom that can never be taken from us? What are some examples of these freedoms?

 

B - Information as a Source of Freedom

There is a kind of freedom that comes through getting good information, through education, through acquiring a broad perspective on an issue, or by building a balanced view of the world.

• Most people have the illusion that because they have seen the picture on TV, that they have seen the reality, and that is it.
• I don’t think that enough people are quite clear about the fact that they are told what they are supposed to know.
• We can get so used to getting easy bites, that when we get something serious, we don’t find it easy to digest.
• Advertising is a very powerful medium.

1. Do you agree that much of the information from the media is biased or hides reality, so that these limitations restrict our perspective and freedom to make good decisions?
2. How do we counteract the limitations of the media in representing reality?
3. In what sense do you think good information, knowledge or truth set us free?
4. Can you explain how getting news in quick easy bites restricts the way we see reality?

 

C - Freedom in Boundaries

This episode presents a tension between two ideas. We hear the view that we all need boundaries of various kinds to enable us to make genuine choices and develop our freedom, yet we are only free when we are not limited by our boundaries.

• As I look at life it becomes obvious to me that the universe is set on laws — physical laws like gravity, and there are laws for the soul as well.
• We need boundaries around our lives for safety, and if those boundaries are broken down, or infringed in some way, we can find ourselves in very difficult situations.
• Freedom is a sense of contentment where we are not bound by things, or behaviours, or practices.

1. Do you agree that the universe is set on laws of different kinds that can bring serious consequences to us if we break them?
2. If we need boundaries around our lives, what do you think some of these may be?
3. How do you explain the idea that freedom is not being hedged in by boundaries when we supposedly need boundaries?
4. What is your own definition of freedom?

 

D - Our Life Goals Define Our Freedom

In the episode opinions were expressed on the idea that the things we pursue for security in life, such as money and career, can decrease our freedom to relate to others and find personal fulfilment.

• In my opinion to be happy is to have peace, to be alive, to have good friends.
• In the post modern age that we live in today, the good things of the scientific mindset have not prevailed, they have not satisfied the deepest needs of the human soul.
• If I’ve set my sense of being secure in this life on my economic stability and how much money I have in the bank, and material things, I am going to struggle when that moment of disaster comes.

1. Why do you think materialism as our search for security can rob us of other kinds life quality and restrict our broader freedom?
2. How do you suppose Paul Brand and Catherine Hamlyn found life fulfilment by helping desperately needy people in India and Africa? Why was wealth not an issue to them?
3. How do you think your view of the world, and ideas about what is important in life shape your choices and view of what freedom is?

 

E - Being Free to be Ourselves

Our need to be accepted by others can conflict with our need for freedom. Some of the dialogue in the episode explores the idea that we gain freedom by resisting our need to conform to the group, or to the expectations of other people.

• Don’t be forced into the pressure of being a little clone of everybody else.
• A powerful thing is to be different, just to be yourself despite the pressures that society lands on you, that education lands on you.
• It’s not about "the dream". It’s about feeling comfortable with myself.

1. It seems that people easily conform to group demands or images of media advertising. How do you think they can be freed from mindless conformity?
2. One deep human need is to find identity in life fulfilment. Why do you think so many allow a shallow or materialistic view of life to deprive them of their true identity?

 

F - Summary — Making Better Choices

• One of the unique things about human beings is the power of choice, and that is something sacred to every one of us.
• Just form your own value system and be happy with that.

1. What new ideas has this episode taught you about the nature of freedom?
2. Do you think your life is determined by your genes and environment? How much does your freedom of choice feature in your quality of life?
3. How do you think you can become more aware of your choices, make better choices, and be more deliberate in forming your own value system?

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© 2002 British Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists