Is freedom only possible by restraint?

So let’s talk about freedom.

The definition of the word is quite elusive and always receding on an infinite horizon but always visible. If you follow current thinkers like Sam Harris, or manga/animation artists you will see that some even make that the phenomenon does not exist but one of the things we wished we had.

Existing or not let’s bring it to practical terms to us laymen. Let’s just say freedom is our capacity to do what we want to so (yes there are specifics but let us leave them behind).

How much freedom is too much?

Can we depend on this freedom for people to make decisions good for themselves and for the society they comprise of?

These are some of questions I believe the author is trying to put across no matter how banal they might seem at a first glance.

As a narrative of exploration, we have a group of British young boys; teenagers at best who are magically stranded on an island without any adult in sight. Why such a thing happens is quite incomprehensible but that is besides the point as you later discover. The boys are forced to first of of all survive and later on are forced to make rules that will govern themselves. The phenomenon is important to me because as probably not out of indoctrination that boys at such decided to have rules to govern themselves. The most eloquent of the first bunch assumes himself leader and make some rules which everyone agrees to in varying degrees. The same has a friend he bullies from the start but keeps because of the brains. The rival is equally one of the older boys, less eloquent, but more industrious and has favour of the so called “hunters” who are not interested in doing basic tasks but can can hunt for the group.

Just like the Israelites during their exodus got bored of eating manna, the boys eventually got tired of eating fruits and this cementing the importance of the hunters who by then had proved their worth by being able to kill a pig. Though the hunters were equally tasked with keeping the fire signal lit, they let fire out and this even intensifies the rivalry between Ralph the leader and Jack the leader of the hunters.

On one hand jack thinks the most important thing is the fire but Jack maintains that hunting is the fundamental activity.

Jack’s argument is logical but who listens to logic when they are bore and all the brain is craving is a chunk of meat accompanied but amusement after. The was even fear of another creature on the Island that the had taken one of the little boys. The hunters had even made a chant during which one one of them played to be a cornered pig surrounded by other boys playing hunter.

“Kill the pig, cut her throat, spill her blood” starts as a playful chant but sometimes it’s interesting how something that starts as something of a joke evolves into something uncontrollable. Tensions increase with time and eventually the boys have to choose between meat or keeping a fire and eating fruits. Camps are divided but everyone keeps their space. The hunters eventually decide to leave a part of their kill to the mysterious creature supposedly living side by side with them.

One fateful night, the two camps are united to enjoy meat. Ralph’s camp joins grudgingly but joins all the same especially that the spectacles used to light a fire is stolen from their camp with pleas to resolve things by dialogue is unfruitful. Then as the fateful dance is going on one of the boys who had long been in the woods in the days suddenly enters the scene and everyone jumps on him as the pig while the ecstasy is mixed with oblivion. And just like that a tragedy is committed, innocence is lost in ticking of a clock.

The aftermath describe the human condition after an atrocity has been committed.

Some of the boys remain in denial and their solution is to keep the silence and never to talk about. The perpetrators even amass more authority and what started as a mistake is adopted for a norm and whether you are with them or against them eventually becomes a matter of life and death. For the fear of the people with power more individual join them betraying their own conscience. And at the height of it all you can no longer even acknowledge the parties. Humans acting like animals whose freedom serves them nothing.

And in the time of human tragedy personally I think that's a good image our human nature or maybe the people in it. It’s like they are on a island with rules and contexts which just makes sense to themselves. Dialoguing is futile in most cases and before you know it, you ask the question if the people acting are still human.

And what seems to restrain us( i mean act as civilised people) are the chains which seem to be against the idea of freedom itself. Look at we call law, rules, or regulations, are they not but restrictions to an excess of freedom we all think is worth fighting for (the majority of us at least).

Maybe their is no clear answer but the we can always try to balance things and not betray our conscience in the event of unfortunate events.

when you look in the side mirror of history you can't even put a finger on what was happening and it might seem like a fable.

Apart from my thoughts, it is a good book and you might get other ideas if you read it.

I hope am back for the rest of this year.

check out my earlier post down here

https://johnnyembe3.wixsite.com/my-site/post/to-be-free-is-to-be-bound