A one-eyed politician barred his mother from seeing him after being disqualified from contesting a position because of his one-eye blindness. When he was little, his mother had allowed him play with knives because he cried whenever the mother took away the knife. Being allowed to play with knife as a baby, he poked and blinded one of his eyes. Crying for being denied knife for play would only have led to brief tiredness and sleep, not blindness or death. Without an enlightened social regulation, the desire for unchecked freedom becomes dangerous to the individual and society.
Several controversies spring about freedom from increase in abortion[1], divorce, feminism,[2] laziness, transgender, homosexuality, single-parenting, school dropout, social disorders and weird behaviours. Some people argue that religion, state or culture has no right to interfere, criticize or moderate their actions or decisions. They say “it is my life, body, affair, fashion, choice and nobody’s business; thus, nobody should criticize me”. Yet, they benefit from the social order and security that is co-created and sustained by these institutions, and even expect help from these institutions during crises.
Absolute freedom is unrealizable
Absolute freedom to do anything sounds desirable because of humans’ dislike for pain, suffering, lack, limitation, restriction and negative consequences.[3] While some people prefer to control and command others for their pleasure without being held responsible by anybody or anything, others prefer to stay indifferent to urgent situations for fear of losing their freedom and comfort. However, experience shows that both action and inaction eventually beget consequences either for the actor or other people.[4] For nobody is an island, and the choices we make affect other people in different parts of the world.
Humans are social beings by nature
By nature, humans are social beings who cannot survive or refine their potentials outside the society.[5] Society is a web of human institutions (families to villages, towns and nations) that collaborate for their wellbeing.[6] And since humans naturally need the society for survival and growth, they organize their social functions to sustain the social relationships. Different styles of social organization follow the people’s reactions and learning from the order in nature. And since nature harmonizes the growth of various natural elements for balance, humans normally organize their societies for people’s growth towards common good. The society’s goal remains the survival, growth and functional development of its members (common good).
Humans regulate their society for peace and progress
To achieve common good, societies regulate people’s actions according to specified ideals of social behaviour. They set up institutions to evaluate and prescribe actions for common good, and to prohibit destructive actions against the society. In prescribing or prohibiting different actions as laws, societies derive reasons from different religions, philosophies, cultures, traditions and experts. These reasons specify the status, rights and obligations of each person in a society. So while most prohibited actions are those that directly affect other people’s lives and property like murder, assault, vandalism, stealing and slander, the most enforced actions is paying different taxes and obeying general rules for running the society.
Negative effects of authoritarian regulation – suppression of initiatives and loyalty
Sometimes, regulating people’s actions become too intellectually, emotionally or physically restrictive that it starts to choke individual initiatives. Thus, some institutions of public control start suppressing people’s freedom, or imposing their opinions on people. And without convincing, justifying and getting consent of the people for those measures, revolution becomes inevitable. Then, people begin craving freedom to make and follow their own decisions without responsibility to/for the society.
Aspects for relaxed regulation – non-physically threatening actions
In respect for autonomy, some societies allow individuals above specified age to decide on issues that do not harm or threaten others. They include ways people use their bodies and time in education, sexuality, marriage, productivity, fashion, religion, conscience, genetic and gender modifications. Then actions that directly threaten other people’s safety become crimes, while actions that may alter social thoughts and behaviours become issues. Eventually, people seek recognition and legalization of such issues that will lead to social and moral decline. This is why there are calls for legalizing abortion, gay marriages and adoption, transgender neutrality and other weird behaviours.
Obtaining collaboration for social progress without bitter force
Societies need people who freely appreciate their social purpose of growth and harmony, and can make right choices for society’ interest. These two qualities of emotional commitment and intellectual capacity are not readily present and equal in every human being. But they can be cultivated in people through emotional and factual education. Emotional commitment and intellectual maturity require readiness to give up some desires that threaten the purpose of the society. Without this emotional and factual education, humans lose meaning of life and purpose of freedom. To cultivate emotional commitment and intellectual capacity in citizens, societies may take the following steps:
- Re-evaluate the purpose of the society and the social behaviours necessary to achieve it. There is order in nature to guide human actions;[7] and humans seek happiness in actualizing their potentials based on their nature. To properly actualize and use their potentials, humans seek knowledge on the RIGHT-USE of natural resources and human faculties: sex, intelligence, talents, masculinity, femininity and etcetera. The development and right use of these potentials manifests in people’s contributions to the society through administration, production and security.[8] Hence, the purpose of the society is to create enabling environment for people to discover and use their potentials for happiness and common good.
- Educating citizens on society’s purpose and the right use of human and natural resources in achieving this purpose. Each individual has unique gifts and dispositions to be discovered, developed and rightly utilized in human society. Through education, progressive societies assist citizens to discover, develop and employ their unique gifts in any aspect of the society. Since humans are beings of habit, education for personal development and social responsibility comes at an early stage so people can grow with it. By their eighteenth year, they would have matured in socially responsible thoughts and actions. Without early education for personal development and social responsibility, people seek happiness in liberal consumerism without thought of secondary consequences on themselves and the society.
- Rehabilitate social drifters with positive engagements. When a society miss the chance to educate some citizens at early stage, there are still possibilities for of mature drifters. Rehabilitating social drifters may not succeed with forceful attacks or shaming, else they become defensive and dogmatic. Instead, the society promotes, publicizes and rewards heroes and heroines of personal development and social responsibility in all social classes. Also the society provides facilities to gradually reform people who seek help and reorientation.[9] Overwhelm evil with good.
Through institutions, well organized, well-staffed and well directed; and through education can people’s thinking and attitudes be changed.[10] Varieties of socially enriching ingredients, initiatives, inventions and discoveries come from freedom to think and look at things differently. But, without direction to social responsibility, freedom becomes dangerous to humanity and society.
[1] Carol Levine, Taking sides (Iowa: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2006) p.136
[2] Ben Shapiro, How feminism ruined marriage, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILUkWyGfuJA
[3] Cf. Henry Hazlitt, Economics in one lesson, (USA: Harper & Brothers, 1946), p.3
[4] Cf. Jean Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions (New York: philosophical library inc., 1957), p23.
[5] Joseph Omoregbe, Social-political philosophy and international relations (Lagos, Joja Press, 2007) p.vi
[6] Cf. Aristotle, Politics bk. 1, ch. 2
[7] Bernd Heinrich, One Man’s owl
[8] Plato in Derek Johnston, A brief history of philosophy (London: MPG Books Ltd, 2006) p.22
[9] Chukwunwike Enekwechi, “From human to patriot, more emotional than mechanical” in Restartnaija. 11th September, 2018. https://restartnaija.com/2018/09/11/human-patriot-emotional-mechanical/
[10] Lee Kwan Yew, From third world to First (London: HarperCollins publishers, 2000) p.18