reflexiones sobre la libertad
this is an older post, that i never got around to publish. but i’ll do it now.
hoy hablamos sobre el circulo de la libertad. está basado en un libro de tim snyder, un historiador de los estados unidos.
un acrónimo mnemotécnico que uso para recordar el concepto de él es ‘sounmofaso’.
comenzaré con los dos letras iniciales ‘so’.
the two letters ‘so’ stand for sovereignty (soberanía). when we grow up as children and adolescents, it is clear for a number of years, that we cannot take our own sovereign decisions. when we reach adolescence, we will try to make our own decisions, but family and society will limit the extent to which we can follow through with our own decisions. only once we reach legal age, will we be able to truly take our own decisions and be free in that sense.
the second element is ‘un’ - unpredictability (imprevisibilidad). we are now young adults and are free to go our own way, embark on our own camino. to be free includes that we may make choices that are unpredictable to our families and may go against their wishes. we are free to make mistakes also.
‘mo’ stands for mobility (movilidad). in a free society we can move. move in a geographical sense, but also in an economic sense. we can start a business without undue obstacles, we can migrate to other (free) countries. wealth does not accumulate in the hands of the very few, but is distributed such that everyone has opportunities and nobody gets left behind.
in a free society, there needs to be factuality (factualitad) - ‘fa’: some things need to be true. no alternative facts, no fake news. something needs to be there which we can place our trust in. there needs to be truth to facts, that we can all agree on. up is up, down is down.
to complete the circle, we need the other ‘so’ - solidarity (solidaridad). none of the other elements of the circulo de la libertad work without solidarity. when we grow up, our parents, our families, our communities, our societies carry the responsibility to provide an environment that is safe, that allows us to grow up in peace, that gives us opportunities to learn and grow. when we decide which way to take in life, society needs to accept the diversity that comes with human choices, we should support each other in our endeavours. we should allow people to move where they want to be and not pitch groups of people against each other.
but is that all? i guess in terms of a societal framework, this framing works quite well.
however, and probably more important for us as individuals: i think, in the end la libertad is something inside of us. that nobody, noone can stop us from thinking what we want to think, that we even might be able to influence what we feel, how we feel it, how we store it in our memories, bodies and bones.
this internal freedom is ultimately what we need to pursue in the first place, so we are free to contribute to freedom on a societal level. let me know what you think!
a bit of information on the photos too: these are from the day crossing from león into galicia, from villafranca del bierzo to o cebreiro. hot, hot, hot! and steep. a combination from hell, or heaven, depending on how you look at it.
