How much the freedom cost?
Are you ready to give up your freedom for your safe existence?
I am an immigrant living in the UK, I left Lithuania in 1999 looking for a better life, I was a young man looking for freedom. Lithuania in the ’90s was a young, independent country,-corrupt politicians, gangsters roaming freely on the streets, shooting and explosions were a daily occurrence.
At that time I had a few options- alcoholism, hard drugs, or living the grey, miserable existence of post-Soviet life. I wasn’t an educated guy, higher education was not what I considered, didn’t see a point of it.
From an early age, I felt that personal freedom is one of the most important things I must strive for. The problem was, I looked for freedom in the wrong places- alcohol, hard drugs, dodgy acquaintances. I didn’t understand what freedom means- I thought that freedom comes from having a lot of money, having a good car, being a thug. I was a stupid kid with stupid ideas in my head. I hated everything around me including myself.
I couldn't stand the hate in my heart anymore, I packed and left. London was my destination.
That was back in the XX-th century, I am a half-bald, mid-forties man now, but still, I love my freedom. Freedom-everyone deserves to have, the freedom is not a right given by some politicians, the freedom which comes with responsibilities- no one has a right to take someone’s else's freedom, no one has the right to take your freedom away from you(unless you decided to take someones else's freedom and you got caught).
Enter 2020 and we forgot that we are free. We happily give up our freedom hoping that it will prolong our existence. We don’t need to travel, we don’t need to go to see places, we don’t want to see anyone. We sit in front of computer screens and talk to people fooling ourselves that is a normal thing- we even gave it a name-” New Normal”.
We got tricked to believe that our freedom is not the most important thing we have, as long we have food on our tables, entertainment on our screens then we are free. it is not freedom, it is an illusion of it- a magic trick in the hands of a stage magician.
I know there is a pandemic roaming across the world but does it mean that we must give up our freedom? Who can guaranty that we will get our freedom back? Can we trust the people running the world that they will take the laws back? Are we going to fight any disease, any virus by restricting our freedoms from now on? There are more questions than there are answers but answer me this:
How much the freedom cost?
