KEY POINTS:

• Freedom and it’s various definitions
• Democracy and Freedom
• Case study (individual and real)
• Case study (in the world)
• Attack on Titan
• Contemplating freedom
• Personal opinion

Freedom is a word with various meanings. To some, freedom is peace of mind, to some freedom is equal rights, to some it can mean equal punishments, to some it can merely just be to live and let live. There are several different types of freedom, some of which are purely individualistic, such as not caring about people’s opinions on oneself as to free yourself from the restraints of thoughts that are not even yours. Freedom involving a number of people who all agree on an ideology or a cause, often demands higher authorities for their voices to be heard in order to spread it between more people and make them more comfortable with being themselves, get what they deserve and be more aware in general. Feminism, environmental awareness, and LGBTQ+ being some examples.

On a mass scale, one of the most important factors that determines freedom is government. Democracy is a form of government practised by more than a hundred countries. Freedom is said to most easily exist in Democracy. But even so, there are many contradictions to this statement.

As we can see through this index, Democracy is practiced in several regions around the world, but still not all, and there are different shades to it. In a country like Finland, which is a fully democratic nation, one of the major problems is politician’s hypocrisy. So if a candidate offers a scheme, the citizens don’t know if the promise will be kept. So, even if people have the right to select their own government, does this bring them freedom? This is not only the case for Finland but for several other countries. Now, if this is the case of a country which is a “full democracy” imagine the countries which are not full democracies and have hypocrite politicians.

Although at the same time, we can not ignore the fact that Democracy is the reason behind the impossible happening, to some extent. Nobody in history could have imagined a person becoming the king, a system of justice where a person in power could be punished as much as an average person, or no ethnicity, race, or nationality to be more noble than the other. All of these things are possible in a Democracy.

In my opinion, Democracy has a paradox to it. You have the right to select who can control you. You have the right to speak up, but only if your words abide by the said and unsaid rules. You have the right to do your thing, but don’t be surprised if laws are made against ‘your thing’ in the name of protecting a culture, religion or any other factor that can represent a nation.

In conclusion, a Democracy can create a sustainable and even happy society, but only if it has a society of educated people who cannot be gaslighted easily. And even so, democracy can not be linked to freedom. The general public only selects who can control the law, they don’t make the laws.

An educated, enlightened and informed population is one of the surest ways of promoting the health of a democracy. - Nelson Mandela

Now, let’s talk about freedom more on an individual level. I’m not talking about the general individual freedom as in everyone has the right to express themselves and appear equal before the law, I’m talking about the freedom an individual person would want themselves to have, regardless of any authorities, groups or causes. Individualistic freedom is exceedingly different from what could be considered freedom for a mass. The underlying concepts, thoughts, values and framework involved in individualistic freedom are what make it so much more complex and unique.

In order to understand the complexities of individualistic freedom, we will study a case.

CASE STUDY

Mrs.Batra is a university professor. She is well-educated, rich, and has a happy family. She loves her job, she makes enough money to sustain herself and her family, she can go wherever she likes and meet amazing people, many of which are her friends. To top it all off, she is a beautiful lady.

To others, Mrs Batra seemed to have it all. And of course, Mrs.Batra loved all these traits about herself, but there was always a part of her, who questioned it all.

She thought to herself; she had the money to travel places but she couldn’t because of her family and her job. It doesn’t make her love her family or work any less, but it is a fact. Although she is a professor earning enough for herself and for others, but she can still tell her husband is favoured more by everyone, just because he’s a man. She has read about different ashrams and places where she can explore her spirituality more, but again she couldn’t do it not only because of her daily life but also because indulging into spirituality required to be a lot more detached and just letting go of a lot of things in general. Something she can never fathom doing.

So sometimes she wonders, is she really free? Does all this money, her loved ones, and her hobbies, make her free?

In truth, she’s always scared to think of an answer, because she already knows what it is. The answer is yes. Yes, these are the things that are holding her back, so one can say that instead of giving her the freedom she so desperately wants, these are the things that are her holding her back from doing what she wants to do. This fact shatters her heart. Since childhood, she always had restrictions on doing the the simplest things. In adulthood, where she technically is doing what she wanted to do, but still has silly restrictions, made by no one but herself.

So it really makes her think. Is this the life she wanted? As a kid, she thought this was freedom. As an adult, she knows it isn’t because she still doesn’t have what she wants. And will she ever achieve freedom? If her desires keep changing like this?

In the above case study, we studied how an independent and self-made rich lady is longing for freedom. We see how she defines freedom as being able to do what we want to, and how she still truly isn’t free by that definition. And this definition is the very essence of freedom, being able to do what you want to do. Of course, the entire definition of freedom will defer from person to person, but this the very essence of it. In Mrs.Batra’s case, she didn’t feel free even after attaining what she wanted as a kid because her desires are different now. This raises a lot of questions- will she ever achieve freedom this way? And is freedom only limited to desires and ‘wants’? if she’s choosing to have her job and family over spirituality, isn’t she freeing herself from the restrictions of her desires?

The answer to this will be different for each reader reading this, and that is the best way I can explain individualistic freedom to you. Everyone has a definition of their own freedom, which depends on their lifestyle, experiences and mindset. Mrs Batra’s definition of freedom was having no restrictions in doing what she wanted since she always had restrictions growing up.

Individualistic freedom is actually the root for freedom for a mass/a certain group. To understand this, we will study a piece of media.

Shingeki no kyogin, better known as Attack on Titan, is an anime aired between 2016-present. The anime talks about a dystopian world where humanity is on the brink of extinction, a boy named Eren lives with his family in an island called Paradis, where apparently the only humans left on earth live. It’s surrounded by three sets of fifty-meter-high walls, to protect the only piece of humanity left from creatures called Titans. Titans are about ten to fifty-meter-tall creatures that feed on humans, they, expectedly, are responsible for this scarcity of human population.

When one day certain ‘colossal’ and ‘armoured’ titans are able to breach Wall Maria, titans emerge like a wildfire on the island and eat hundreds, including Eren’s mother. Eren survives and decides he’ll kill all the titans that there are and destroy his enemies.

Sounds like a very random action-fantasy series targeted for young men, doesn’t it? Well, it's not. As the series goes on, it is revealed that the people living in Paradis, are in fact, not the only piece of humanity left on Earth. People living in Paradis are of a certain race called the ‘Eldian’ race. This race, if given a certain fluid, can be turned into human-eating titans. Yes, the same Titans who torment the non-titan Eldians living on paradise. Then there should also be someone who is making Titans right? Well, those would be the humans living outside Paradis, specifically the Marleyan government. Yes, there are people who live outside the walls but the population of Paradis doesn’t know about it. Actually, in ancient times, there existed an Eldian empire that overthrew almost every empire they could reach using titans, until it was overthrown by Marley. Once it was, the empire’s king said that the Eldians left will reside in the island for 100 years, with ‘peace’ and he manipulated everyone’s memory using titan powers, and hence Paradis and its people. Throughout the series Eren learns about this truth and learns that the 100 years are coming to an end. In order to attain freedom, and to complete his vow of killing all his enemies, and keeping the fact in mind that due to things that were planned way before even Eren was born, he has certain powers and abilities that no one else does, he decides the only way to make his people free is to destroy the human population outside Paradis. Yes, ALL OF IT.

However, Eren’s own friends (who were scouts) thought this decision is rather rash and thought genocide was wrong, tried to stop him, they were able to save 20% of the world population besides Paradis.

By analysis of the manga series, I can say this much: people have different perceptions of freedom, and at least on an unconscious level, they see their own perception as the only “right” one, that is if they don’t do so in a conscious state. Even if you seemingly try to find the same things, the same cause, there are somethings that will always differentiate in one’s mind. This is proven as although Eren and his friends, in fact everyone in the Paradis, wanted to live outside the walls and see the world, they wanted to explore, but some of them didn’t see freedom the same way Eren did, so they disagreed with his ways, while some who did or at least had a similar perception, supported him. What Eren did would have given them what they wanted. When they said they wanted to explore the world outside of walls, some of them meant they wanted to meet new people, wanted to explore cultures, while some just wanted to see the world outside the walls but hated the people. Eren as we can see belonged to the second category. So, his actions spread a movement and an internal conflict. Some believed that the only person that can free Paradis was Eren and his way was the only correct one. While others weren’t to excited about his plan for a genocide. His supporters were called “Jeagerists” and they played a huge role in ultimately executing Eren’s plan.

It’s not that Eren spread his ideology, he never did, it’s that when people saw what he was trying to do they supported him because they agreed with him. I can say confidently that all of their idea of freedom must not be completely the same, but many of their key points matched, and so they came together and created a community. And that is how a certain type, condition, lifestyle and/or way of freedom is established. People have similarities, and similar agendas, and when they see someone actually acting upon an ideology/experience/cause they wished someone did something about, they support it, and gradually gain enough courage to do something about it themselves.

Some real-life examples of this would be the LGBTQ community, Feminists, Animal rights activists etc.

As a child, I always thought about how amazing it would be to be an adult. I’d have the freedom to buy chocolates for myself, go to bed whenever I want to, and live in my own house. At that time, I considered that freedom. Now that I’m a bit older but not an adult, I see the adult lifestyle as a responsibility. To me freedom now lies in my autonomy, the respect to my autonomy and not being a victim of hypocrisy in a system.  

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