It’s probably enough to have a man like Spartacus, who, 2200 years ago led a slave revolt against the might of the Roman Empire, turning in his grave, but the question must be asked. Are the concepts of freedom, choice and democracy still legitimate today?
Spartacus was the illegitimate son of a wealthy Greek, and his illiterate slave, who was sold to work in the mines of Libya, at the age of thirteen. “There,” according to master film-maker Stanley Kubrick, “under whip and chain, he lived out his youth, dreaming of the death of slavery.” He became a symbol for freedom, leading a slave revolt that was, in the end, mercilessly crushed, but his name remains synonymous with freedom.
Though having two definitions, freedom was then expressed until recently, as the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved, and in most societies we have actually achieved that state of freedom, as only those who are guilty of crimes against society are now deprived of their liberty.
However, the second definition, of the, “right to act, speak and think as you choose”, is probably more debatable in terms of its relevance to today’s world. We all like to think we’re free, but are we? We would all like to think we are parties to a democratic system of governance in some way, shape or form, but are we?
Of course, we’re not all clever enough to know when we have freedom, when democracy is working for us, and I recall someone saying something like, “The people who demand freedom of speech, do so make up for the freedom of thought they don’t use.” Now that’s quite clever, as it says those who have the loudest voices don’t always offer the best options, and those whose voices we hear most often, are not always expressing the most valid opinions.
Great men express freedom and democracy as bedfellows, with Nelson Mandela saying that his personal freedom wasn’t just a matter of “casting off chains,” but knowing that he could free others. He recognised too that democracy is not only about protecting the right to self-determination by a majority, but the safeguarding of political and social minorities.
Abraham Lincoln, meanwhile, wrote that though he “would not be a slave nor a master”, as he saw as much, or as little, democracy in one, as the other. I guess if we look at freedom and democracy being symbiotic, then we have to also understand that such philosophies and beliefs are not those of all people.
However, throw choice into the mix, and surely the ultimate form of democracy and freedom is not about living a life in a particular fashion, or exercising a vote to choose one person, or party, over another, but is more appropriately about having the choice to do so.
Life is not only about making choices, though much of it is, and we can simplify our choices by knowing what are the right, and wrong things, to do. Inherent in those same choices are the ability to recognise when we have made the wrong choices, and to learn from those mistakes.
We are none of us perfect, me most of all, and I don’t feel that I’m preaching, in fact I’m not arrogant enough to feel I have the right. But what I do wish is that we could all take a few moments to recognise that we are absolutely privileged to live in a time when we can know so much, when so many are free to make democratic choices, to live by, daily.
On a lighter note, I must finish with an epic Benjamin Franklin quote, pondering the fallibility of democracy, likening it to “two wolves and a lamb, voting on what to have for lunch.”
Ray Petersen
petersen_ray@hotmail.com
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