Category: Freedom

What price are we willing to pay?

What price are we willing to pay?

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

– Martin Niemöller

                       There is a reason that today I start with the profound lines of Martin Niemöller, In a world divided on any number of lines, devoid of any nuance, where the shades of grey are all but gone. Where we kid ourselves, sitting in our comfort zone, with utmost an lackadaisical shrug, when we impart gravitas to the grave miscarriages of justice that happen right in front of our very eyes.

                       Everyday we stand not with our crucified brethren, in their excruciating despair is yet another day we move closer to the inadvertent breaching of our very own social fortresses. Echoing the words of Martin, Who will fight along us tomorrow when we excuse ourself from fighting for the besieged, who will be left to fight along us?

                       It is disheartening to think that in this age of readily and freely available information, we stand as a species more vapid and ignorant; refusing to learn from our mistakes, even the most recent of ones. Today the very grandsons of soldiers who fought in Europe to liberate it from fascism can be found embracing the very absolutist ideology that was defeated with much bloodshed. It bequeaths great shame on those heroes who lay waste their potential for an ungrateful tomorrow.

                       How is it that we are today in golden age of human ingenuity gold fishes; needing to lose and regain freedom; to have to fight the very same fights again and again against the very same foe. Only for as much as to appreciate what is already there. How is that today the great pillars of our society that stood the tests of millennia so scalded and emancipated that they require the round the clock protection from self-righteous peanut-brained zombies of vigilantes.

                       As the clock ticks close to Ragnarok and as the giant abyss of chaos become ever the more omniscient, it is the right time if ever to remember Martin Niemöller and his wise words. Today we must stand aware and awake; alert to the many threads that coming knocks; ever ready to take arms to defend the freedom that we have won at great cost. To make the last stand for our brethren when called upon.Her

 

 

Note : Thanks dad, for all the words you have ever said to me the poem of Martin Niemöller were the most profound.

 

For Freedom We Fight

I am much saddened today for today is one of the darkest day in my country’s modern existence. Today I stand not a proud Indian, the apex court of my supposedly great nation has shamed me. My head is no longer held high, but it is loose and downward. I stand before the whole world ashamed of the leap to medieval era of ignorance that we took with the verdict today. I am no longer from a country that values #freedom, #liberty, #fraternity and #justice above all but from one that has sent millions of it’s inhabitants to jail for their exercise of their fundamental freedom of expression. They have been thrown in along with murderers and rapists because they choose to stand by what they are. Unfortunately today the nation has sacrificed everything it once stood for in the name of religious sentiment. India had repeated that one mistake that has caused several great human tragedy and has been corrected with the blood and lives of many martyrs. Todays verdict on #Sec377 was one of the greatest human tragedy to have befell on Indian citizens in over several decades.
But this fight is not yet over and this is only the beginning. The night is darkest before dawn and dawn is certainly coming. Every freedom in the history of humanity has been won by hard fought battles and this will not be an exception. It will be won and will have to be given, for it is a matter of time before that happens and nothing can stop that from happening. What #HarveyMilk did to the world our sisters and brothers will do in India and from the clutched hands of India’s pseudo religious inhumans we will snatch the victory and along with it the very freedom that we deserve. 

Many may think that it is not our fight but don’t be illusioned by your procrastinatory attitude for every freedom lost whether the ones we exercise or not is another freedom willingly surrendered. If we let it happen today then soon will come the day when the freedom we exercise will have also to be surrendered. A nation will lesser liberties is not a progressive society it is one heading towards obvious oblivion. 

It is our fight as much as it is anyone’s. We cannot let the supreme court or a bunch of prejudiced judges take away from us the freedom of choice. We cannot let the state dictate to me whom to love, how to love and most of all what is love. Indian judiciary has a made a grave mistake today by the contemption of a marginal section of society that is already under tremendous exploitation. They have injudiciously made that mistake of pitting itself against a progressive ideology for the sake of medieval and hippocratic views. 

The day will soon come when that will have to east their on words and grand top every one the freedom they rightfully deserve. No amount or armor and bureaucracy can stop the inevitable change from happening for change is essential to a progressive society or it will have to be forcefully induced.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West

Chasing Liberty

The idea of liberty and freedom has always been more than just words to our years, we have had undergone a grueling struggle to claim what we call our freedom. Enrich Freud, an eminent psychoanalyst points out that humanity always had a quest fro freedom but often it were  reduced to nothing but replacing an archaic system of suppression with a later model. The continuous changes in governance and  theosophical societies has played the major role in what is that we call freedom. As mush as I agree with him on this point I disagree to the same degree with his views. I know that could very well be called double standards but after all for us Freedom , Liberty and democracy are more than just words.

All men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains

                                    -Jean Jacques Rousseau

The idea of liberty and our chasing behind it is there in the very fabric of our existence. As Rousseau  invariably pointed out all most all men are born into chains though by entitlement they deserve none, they are born into the chains of society, the chains of relations, the chains of hypocrisy and the very chains of existence. Though one may argue that some chains are rather light and essential for a social being, I would like to point out that nevertheless they are chains and further more an encroachment on ones freedom.  However light the chains may be, however indistinguishable the reins may be, they are by all degree an hurdle in the quest for absolute freedom.

Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom.

                                                                                                                                – Albert Camus


The absolute freedom is as volatile a thing as anything can ever be. When a freedom so absolute arrives and is exercised in its purest form, wouldn’t ones freedom be just another encroachment on another’s, wouldn’t one’s freedom be a hindrance to another’s. These questions pose an obvious answer, it certainly would. if you are still unclear on that let me put it with a light example out here. if my freedom allows me to kill somebody as it should as it is being purely nonrestrictive to me then that becomes an encroachment one that persons freedom to live with out any fear or danger whom I am to kill to exercise my freedom. That must simply make it clear that our quest for absolute freedom will never be quenched as there can never exist an ideal concept of absolute freedom that is exercised universal and without discrimination. 
Then what are we hunting when we are hunting for freedom? what really is freedom? is it an ability to do what ever we please when ever we please to do so? It is not! Freedom in its ideal form is just an act of balance where one can do what he pleases as long as he is never incriminating another’s right to do what that persons feels to do. Freedom sure is a strange idea, so is Liberty. I would never talk of democracy as an idea as strong as an idea as liberty or freedom. Democracy is just another “cracy”, much like autocracy, theocracy and so on. 

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

                                                                                                                – Thomas Jefferson

But Liberty and Freedom are profound ideas and things that ever human or rather animal soul craves. But then one might ask what difference Liberty and Freedom entails as they seemingly and essentially appear the same. In fact its true that they are identical but for a slight difference. Liberty is the ability to exercise freedom without harming another.  It is true that our should never be for absolute freedom but for absolute Liberty and only the lady of liberty can bring about such profound change in humanity that they stop existing as a coercive species and as groups of idealists. 
The quest for freedom or liberty what ever it may be is a long one and much is left to be done to attain this perfect balance. what we need now are not champions of democracy nor champions of liberalization but we need champions of liberty. Champions who can and will work to bring about absolute Liberty. A liberal world is the most perfect world that we can ever hope that our children will ever live in. 
Dreaming of such a wonderful world I stop her assuming that from the shreds of things I talked about you could find what is that you want from the freedom and liberty you already have and what is that space that you want to create for liberty to thrive.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West