Why Freedom?
Another labor-intensive week of 11AP English has finally passed. This week's main topic was definitely the different types of freedom such as Frederick Douglass's freedom from slavery, Vowell's freedom of interpretations, and Wallace's freedom of being present-minded and having a compassionate life. All of these types of freedom represent a deeper understanding of different aspects of being truly free mentally and physically. The authors used various methods such as sarcasm and mockery of the system to convey their feeling or understanding of freedom to the reader. However, I wasn't able to find a connection between me and the 3 types of freedom discussed during the week because they were pretty much irrelevant (at least right now) in my life. What I truly value right now is simply having a happy life.
As an immigrant from mainland China, I was restricted in many areas of my daily life such as my freedom of speech or press. I could not publicly criticize the government or I will probably be arrested by the police for sedition and be put in jail. I could not protest against laws. I could not post my negative opinions on social media about the government; it will be taken down in only a few minutes and my account will get permanently banned from posting forever. The news channels were also controlled directly by the government and every day the news will be heavily edited to show the Chinese superiority over other countries. Many historical events are censored or altered and in school history classes are used by other teachers as study hall hours. Since I came to the US, I have finally discovered the Chinese government's censorship.
At first, I was pissed at the Chinese government and wondered why they are doing these things to prevent the people from learning and protesting. As I kept learning about the "real" Chinese history, I slowly understood that the government is trying to keep the people happy and patriotic by limiting a few rights. I know that in the US, that probably seems unacceptable and wrong, but when I think back, I was definitely happier when I was in China. I did not know how terrible the world is; all I did was study from morning to night every single day. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not, but here, we learn about so many philosophical things that are really depressing and different complicated versions of freedom because of the freedom we have. At the bottom of the people's hearts, are they really happier after receiving those rights? How many people truly care about these complicated philosophies? Many people pretend they care to get a good grade or survive school, what is the point of learning them if they are only used for academic accomplishments? The suicide rate in the US is way higher than the rate in China which shows that the general population is not truly happy but instead depressed and confused because of the large amounts of routes that they can take as a result of the freedom. The two countries also have similar graduate employment rate which shows that extra bit of depressing philosophies is not helping students to find jobs.
Why is freedom so important in the US then? It does not make them better in any way shape or form, then what is the point of it? Guess it's time to learn some more depressing philosophies to answer that question.
I've never heard of someone saying that he prefers restrictions over limitations. But with the connections to your experience and statistics, I get what you're saying. The question of whether people are happier with freedom is a really heavy one; but I guess in the instance that they aren't happy, it necessary to be given a voice.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really familiar with the situation in Hong Kong right now, but from what I can see, the way the police/government is handling the protests against restrictions on civil liberties is horrible. In this case, countries should provide freedom. If governments are carrying out immoral policies, people should have the right to fight for what makes them happy.
One thing I liked about your post is that it took into consideration of all the freedoms we talked about in class and analyzed them to figure out your true meaning. You tied this topic well with your own personal life experience and I found your take on this topic interesting. I am not an immigrant myself so I found it interesting to read your personal experiences to see that you had more happiness with restricted freedom. Another thing that I liked about your blog is that you thought of how examined both sides of the argument about the whole data restriction conflict in your blog coming from the main land of China to the US.
ReplyDeleteI like that you are speaking positively of limitations over freedom, in reaction to the higher morale due to the limitations. I often see and read about people ranting about not having sufficient freedoms. But imagine if lives in a world with infinite freedoms. It would be ANARCHY. The world is in order because of limitations. We are ruled by them. When our ancestors appeared, dinosaurs were a limitation to their population. Now, food is a limitation. Borders are a limitation. Our body size is a limitation. Governments are a limitation. Age is a limitation. Emotions are a limitation. Water is a limitation. Earth’s orbit is a limitation. The infinite numbers in math are a limitation to a guy thinking that there are one a finite number of numbers. Everything is scare and that is a limitation. We have unlimited wants, but only limited resources, and that is a limitation. And so on . . .
ReplyDeleteHI Matthew! I liked how you talked about were happier under the Chinese government's rather paternalistic laws and censorship. I agree with you about the fact that people in supposedly "free" nations are unhappier and have a higher suicide rate. i also like how you pointed out that having "freedom" is not an automatic ticket to happiness. I think that I would rather live in blissful ignorance. I understand that the Chinese government censors information to maintain stability. However, it uses this near absolute power to cover up atrocities such as organ harvesting and the Uighur concentration camps.
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