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Friday, December 06, 2013
[Are we really free?]
I watched Jack Reacher recently. One of the scenes in the movie gave me something to think about.
The following is one of the songs we sang when we were serving National Service in the Army. We had many songs, one of which was banned recently thanks to the efforts of a group of people who’s never walked a mile in our shoes, who twists and turns the concept of feminism into a weapon for them to get what they want. For them, the holier-than-thous, to decide what is right. But that’s another story. Of all the songs we’ve sang, this one had the greatest impact on me because it was not about some silly, made-up concepts or ideas (I never understood the meaning of the banned song, but that's besides the point). The words of this song meant something:
Training to be solders,
Fight for our land.
Once in our lives,
Two years of our life.
Have you ever wondered,
Why must we serve?
Because we love our land,
And we want it to be free, to be free.
This is just the first verse, and that’s all I need for the purposes of this post.
Most of us serve our National Service in the military, and the reason is because we want our country to be free. Free here obviously refers to freedom, and not void of payment.
We are free to walk about on the streets. Free to do what we want (within reasonable limits, of course). Free to make our own decisions. Free to choose our Government. Free to choose our jobs. Free to decide whether or not to get married. Free to decide if we want to have kids. We are, however, not free to decide whether or not we want to serve in the military, whether we want to spend two of the best years of our lives serving National Service at all.
Putting aside the last point in the previous paragraph, the truth is, are we really free?
Every morning, hundreds of thousands of people turn off their alarm clocks and get ready for work. They squeeze onto packed buses and trains, all with sour looks on their faces. They reach their offices, do the work they are assigned to, whether they liked it or not. They break for lunch, and for one hour or so, food establishments see a huge increase in customers. After which, they go back to their offices, continue doing the work they’ve been assigned while wishing they could be somewhere else. In the evening, they leave the office, get on packed buses and trains again, with slightly less-sour looks now since the day was over. They make their way home in gridlocked traffic, and wait for the day to repeat itself tomorrow.
Why do people do this?
Because they need to pay their housing loans. Their car loans. Maybe they have to take care of their aged parents. Their kids. Ultimately, it is because whatever money they have won’t last them for the rest of their lives. They stay back in office, working late, reaching home after their kids are asleep. They shower, they sleep, and they go back to the office.
So ask yourself. Are you truly free?
^^^ by Locksley @ 11:36 PM.
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