The opportunity to be offended is evidence you live in a free country. In a large country full of diverse people the only way to get rid of all the things and people that offend you would require taking their freedoms or getting rid of them entirely. In other words, you become a little tyrant. Freedom from offense is NOT in the constitution.
Freedom requires courage. A fearful people will not stay free. They will not have the courage to say what needs to be said or to that which should be done. They will give away their freedoms to governments, oligarchs, and other “experts”. They will let others think for them. If you give up the freedom to think for yourself all other freedoms are in danger.
Freedom requires independence. The more we are dependent on others the more our freedom is vulnerable to their wishes, their values. We must decide how dependent we want to be on governments, big businesses, and social media oligarchs. What freedoms are worth some inconvenience? Doing for ourselves is not the easiest route…in a time of convenient dependency. We must think about it if we are to be, at least, semi-free.
Freedom requires morality. Immoral people will not remain free. By their actions, they will require restrictions. As evil grows legal remedies grow and freedoms shrink. Only moral people will be responsible with their freedom. A person who would not kill needs no law forbidding it. Laws should be for the lawless not unreasonable restrictions on the moral. But by nature most laws are restrictive. Only moral people need few external restrictions on their freedoms. The fewer restrictions needed the more free people can be.
Freedom requires tolerance towards people unlike you. Only a belief that all in a society should have basic freedoms will keep a society free. If you believe that people who are not just like you should not be free then you have a problem. Because no one is exactly like you.
Freedom requires more thought and responsibility than we are giving it. BE FREE.
Tim's Positive Place 