Freedom Vs Safety
It is a common implicit assumption that everyone wants to have freedom for themselves. It has also become an increasingly (in a society addicted to litigation) common presumption that everyone both desire and deserve to be ‘safe’.
Curiously the fact that these two conditions; Freedom on the one hand, and Safety on the other, tend to inhabit opposite poles of a spectrum does not seem to occur to most people nursing such delusional expectations.
Parenthood has a tendency to bring out a lot of the inescapable’s of life in stark colors.
My dearly beloved (if at times absent minded to a fault) son, has been known to;
Attempt to swim out to sea where he can no longer make it back to shore, rush out heedless into the road, and on one occasion to ‘successfully’ come flying off of a scooter and knock out a pair of front teeth.
Though the results of the latter escapade does lend him a certain disarming and endearing look, it was not a pleasant experience at the time to anyone involved. Not to mention that years later he still has trouble clearly enunciating when speaking.
Thus, I restrict his freedom to a certain extent, so as to limit the amount of danger he can get himself into to a certain manageable level that I believe he is likely to survive.
On the other hand; many a time when given free choice of what to do, all 3 of my delightful musketeers will be stumped. Or alternatively simply hem and haw over such deep and weighty debates such as which flavor popsicle should one try. (to be fair, that type of momentous decision making weighs most heavily on my middle child)
This is not to say, that either of these important staples of a meaningful and fulfilling life; Freedom on the one hand, and safety on the other, are to be restricted willy nilly to an immoderate extent. But rather, that like many things in life, they are a balancing act, and are each good within their measure according to the capacity of my little crew to handle them. (and my own capacity to handle them handling them — I’m only human) And accordingly Freedom and safety are good within reason for everybody, appropriate to his their capacity to handle freedom, with it’s risks and counter external danger, with internal competence.
Worldwide, we have recently experienced governments, businesses, and many other social and political organizations severely restricting individuals’ freedom to do such things as go to work, congregate, practice religion, run businesses, be outside without masks, etc. All this with the stated goal of keeping us all safe. (Or at the very least the most vulnerable amongst us — the messaging is at times confused).
Setting aside the widespread dissatisfaction and myriad of opinions about the appropriateness of such actions and/or their extent, the case is clear; On the one extreme you can leave everyone with the freedom to do as they please, and correspondingly run the risk of death from disease, similarly to the way the Swedish government chose to deal with the threat of covid, and on the other extreme, you have examples such as the Chinese government who at times chose to weld people’s door’s shut, just in case the irresponsible little buggers tried to flex their notions of freedom to such extremes as leaving their homes.
Freedom always comes at a price of one sort or another, and one persistent aspect of this price is heightened risk.
If you are to let people drive cars, there will be a certain quantity of car accidents.
If you let people play contact sports some athletes will suffer brain damage and other types of injuries
If you are to find love, then you must risk getting your heart broken, or even at extreme cases getting physically hurt …
And yet..
The United States was founded on the principle that people have the freedom to pursue happiness, and while these 2 rights are preceded in the declaration of independence by the right for life. It is implicit and generally accepted that one’s freedom includes the freedom to risk Your own life.
We celebrate, and many are inspired by the achievements of adventurers and trailblazers such as Neil Armstrong, Alex Honnold, Amelia Earhart, and many more brave souls.
However, considering the fact that the 2 rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness are preceded by the right to live; We step in as a society and restrict people’s freedom’s when they put the right to live of others at risk.
For example; we limit driving to people over a certain age, who’ve proven through testing that they are at least reasonably capable of the task, and we remove said freedom when they’ve proven otherwise.
We limit drinking to people older than a certain age, and we limit people’s freedom to drive after they’ve been drinking, we limit the construction of buildings to be according to building code, so as to prevent such public risks such as building collapses and fires. We restrict the freedom to carry arms of those convicted of a felony, or deemed mentally unstable. We limit the ability to consent to sexual relations to a certain age, etc. etc.
Freedom exposes us to danger at times. When you expose only yourself to danger, that is mostly accepted by society (up to a point, suicide is generally frowned upon and in many cases — legally restricted), but when your activity exposes others to danger, society steps in to restrict your freedom.
The mitigating element to the risk inherent in freedom is maturity and competence.
Thus, society often considers it entirely appropriate to limit one’s freedom when they are considered incapable of taking responsibility for themselves. Most commonly in the case of children.
In such cases the responsibility for the unemancipated individual’s safety, and their freedom, is placed in the hands of their guardian/s.
When a child is born he is utterly helpless, incapable of any independent action other than crying, and relieving itself (though often babies struggle even with that). Even eating is limited to the ability to swallow liquids, when a bottle or a nipple is shoved in its mouth. Thus, a newborn cannot exercise any sort of freedom. And when it first becomes capable of independent movement, you better restrict it’s movement, and the amount of risk in the part of the home accessible to the baby, or said baby will very quickly hurt himself.
With time a child gains more and more competence, and seek to test is with a growing exploration of the new horizons of it’s independence. Correspondingly, parents ought to afford their children an expanding sphere of freedom, that matches their increased abilities;
The safe confines of the playpen expand into a space that includes the whole baby room, which eventually expands to the baby proofed house, minus; staircases, kitchen drawers and other dangers.
Eventually you grant access to those as well, first with guidance, support, a watchful eye, and at some point you you find it obvious that your child goes up and down the steps, or helps out in the kitchen, while still not even entertaining the notion of letting him at the wheel of your car. Until they’re 16 and that too eventually come to pass…
Children grow, and mature, and as they do you enable them (hopefully) to experience more and more freedom that they are gradually more and more equipped to handle. Inherent risks included.
If one does not exercise their freedom, they will not develop the ability to use it. Whilst, when one grants more freedom to a person than his level of maturity and capabilities warrant you could put both that person, and the people around them in danger.
Our standards as to what is dangerous or not, are appropriate and what levels of danger are acceptable shift with time;
- Cocaine, thought of as a “wonder drug” used to be freely used to treat depression at the local pharmacy, and was the main ingredient of the original “Coca-Cola”
- Machine guns are no longer easily and freely accessible as they were in the heyday of the roaring 20’s
- It is no longer considered acceptable that children serve in the military, past recipients of the medal of honor at 13 notwithstanding
- Who knows? Perhaps in the future participation in contact sports will be limited to 18 year old’s
Our acceptance of what levels of freedom or lack thereof also shift with time; Until the 70’s the principle of ‘In loco parentis’ where universities were very much considered responsible for, and consequently had the authority to police the behavior of (primarily) it’s female student population.
Practices such as; house mother’s, chaperones, and curfews in women’s dorms were all widely accepted as necessary in order to limit the freedom of female college students doing something dangerous or irresponsible.
Women at the time were not considered mature enough to handle the dangers that corresponded with too much freedom without the watchful eye of parents, so the university authorities stepped in instead.
It is curious to note that while the feminist demand in the 60’s and 70’s was essentially ‘Give us the freedom to expose ourselves to the dangers of the world. We are mature enough to make that choice’. It seems that in recent years there has been a declining understanding, and acceptance of the fact, that greater freedom entails greater risk thus demands greater responsibility, and maturity.
Thus, while it is a given these days, that female students have the freedom to manage their own nightlife — Rather than accepting the responsibility that goes along with that freedom, the demand is increasingly that we remove the dangers of the world instead, thus the stage was set for an ever more activist engagement of campus authorities in policing the whole social sphere of college life.
It is ironic that from the demand that the authorities stay out of student’s life and let them engage with each other, and life on their own terms, the demand seems to have reversed to demand that the campus authorities go as far as policing the very behavior students engage with in the bedroom!
And thus we come full circle to the somewhat pathological, and internally conflicted present day expectation, that everyone receive maximum freedom, and be absolutely protected from any danger.
Rather than raising and educating citizens to be independent, mature individuals. Who are capable of stepping out into a world, which is at times dangerous. Rather then cultivating youngsters to becoming tough, resilient and capable enough of taking care of themselves, we try instead to bubble wrap the world in order to make it safe for our increasingly naive, misguided and weak populace, to ‘freely’ explore this brave new and neutered world. And for some reason people raise their eyebrows with surprise at the ever rising levels of anxiety of our youth.
Instead of exposing our descendants to the actual facts of the real world; Where cruelty and danger lies side by side with beauty, grace and courage. We have become increasingly addicted to emasculating practices such as ‘safe spaces’, ‘trigger warnings’, and other protections from dangers real and imagined. While we used to freely roam the great outdoors and explore, our younger generation is confined to the home, only venturing out for organized ‘playdates’ and extracurriculars, lest they be hurt outside the home.
We do a disservice to our youth, which are rapidly becoming our young adults (and yet ever so far from achieving actual maturity), by lying to them about the nature of the world. Making them expect reward without effort, without risk, and fulfillment without sacrifice. And preventing them from testing out the waters, taking risks, and practicing ever expanding independence, even if it means they might come home with scuffed knees, or worse.
We must teach our children, and remind ourselves as well, that the path treaded in the pursuit of happiness usually involves risk, and at times danger.
But the reward, the reward is ultimately freedom. Actual freedom, from one’s own prison, from the helpless dependence on the protection of others, Freedom from one’s own limits, the freedom that can only be gained by leaning past one’s own perceived limits, vanquishing one’s own demons and becoming a mature, competent, contributing, independent and confident adult. The freedom to be the master of one’s own life. The freedom to become the hero of ones own life, and go find dragon’s to try and slay. (excessive)Safety be damned.
