Freedom Does Not Exist
Let me tell you why
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“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” — Herman Melville
Freedom!
It’s a heavy word. It comes with a lot of baggage and images of blue, red, and white flags and fireworks and rocking guitar solos.
Clearly, there’s a lot to unpack when my (a young woman from Canada) idea of freedom is steeped in American iconography. But, that’s not what I’m here for.
I’m here to talk about Freedom™️, this skewed idea of what freedom means and how it doesn’t even exist the way certain political and ideological groups want you to think it does.
If you’ve been living under a rock, don’t live in Canada, or don’t pay attention to Canadian news, you may not know that a couple of weeks ago Ottawa was set free (pun intended) from an occupation of “protesters” (aka Freedom Truckers) who set up camp and harassed citizens and healthcare workers, honked at all hours, waved Nazi and confederate flags, defaced the war memorial and the statue of Terry Fox, and were generally kind of awful.
There were also convoys blockading the Canada-U.S.A. border, preventing movement back and forth between the countries.
Yikes.
This, of course, was all done in the name of Freedom™️ from COVID-19 healthcare protocols. You know the kind: masks, vaccines, social distancing, etc.
So what they REALLY want is the freedom to do anything without consequences.
According to the internet, this is the definition of freedom:
Do you know what’s not part of the definition of freedom? No consequences.
Obviously, this is a broad and unadulterated version of freedom. There is freedom of choice and freedom of speech for those in privileged situations. But, what I am referring to is the freedom to live without consequences, without impact on others.
